IMAGE

The IMAGE project is possibly one of the most ambitious gastroenterology research projects to have taken place in Britain.

Funded by the Health Foundation, and led by Professor Roger Jones, the Wolfson Professor of General Practice at King's College London, the project draws together four major gastroenterological complaints: IBS, Inflammatory Bowel Disorder (IBD), Coeliac disease (CD), and Gastroesophagal Reflux Disease (GORD). With the support of the three charities in the field, the Gut Trust for IBS, Coeliac UK for CD, and the National Association for Crohn's and Colitis for IBD, and working in conjunction with an advisory team of top medical professionals, the project aims to study, recommend improvements to, monitor and finally develop guidance for the management of these illnesses in general practice.

So what does it mean, and what does it do? IMAGE stands for Improving Management in Gastroenterology, and is part of the Health Foundation's "Engaging with Quality in Primary Care" funding strand.

Here is what the project's website says about it:

Gastrointestinal disorders account for about 10% of the work of general practitioners and hospital specialists and have major health impacts. There is a gap between best evidence and clinical practice, and uncertainty about the most appropriate quality outcomes for many gastrointestinal disorders. The IMAGE project, funded by a £520,000 grant from the Health Foundation, sets out to identify quality criteria for the management of selected gastrointestinal disorders in general practice and at the interface with hospital medicine and to test their implementation in clinical practice and health care commissioning.

The project was developed by a unique combination of professional and patient groups, including the Primary Care Society for Gastroenterology, the British Society for Gastroenterology, the National Association for Crohn's and Colitis, Coeliac UK, the Gut Trust, CORE (the digestive diseases charity) and the Division of Health and Social Care Research in the King's College London School of Medicine.

IMAGE focuses on four disorders - gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, irritable bowel syndrome, coeliac disease, and inflammatory bowel disease. The programme will use innovative methodology. We will derive patients' views about quality criteria for the management of their conditions through the conduct of a series of focus groups across England, Scotland and Wales. We will then combine the outputs of these focus groups with a synthesis of best evidence for the management of our four target disorders to develop a range of paper and electronic prompts and guidelines to inform clinical practice and healthcare commissioning. Working across a number of PCTs in the UK, we will test the implementation of these materials in practice clusters, where GP gastrochampions will lead on specific disease areas. Outcome criteria will include measures of health-related quality of life, patient satisfaction, disease-specific health outcomes, prescribing, costs and utilities.

The Project Implementation Group, consisting of Professor Roger Jones (King's College London), Dr Richard Stevens (Primary Care Society for Gastroenterology), Mr Richard Driscoll (NACC), Jonathan Blanchard-Smith (the Gut Trust) and Sarah Sleet (Coeliac UK), will work closely with specialists in health informatics, health economics, health services research, specialist nursing and gastroenterology over a three year period. The project launched in June 2007.

Our aim is very clear. We want to make sure people with IBS, as well as with other gastroenterological illnesses, receive the care and support they need from their GPs in a way that works for them. We believe our involvement in the IMAGE project could make a significant contribution towards achieving that objective.