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Letter
COVID-19 guidance in chronic diseases: a need to reach across the borders of the traditional medical specialities
  1. Tom Thomas1,
  2. Joht Singh Chandan2,
  3. Ajay Mark Verma3,
  4. Paul Cockwell4,
  5. Emma Vaux5,
  6. Neeraj Bhala2,4
  1. 1 Translational Gastroenterology Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital and Kennedy Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  2. 2 Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
  3. 3 Department of Digestive Diseases, Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Kettering, UK
  4. 4 Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK
  5. 5 Royal College of Physicians, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Neeraj Bhala, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK; nijbhala{at}googlemail.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/flgastro-2020-101515

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    The COVID-19 pandemic poses extraordinary challenges to all physicians, especially managing sick and vulnerable patients, such as those with chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis share use of immunomodulators and biologic therapies that pose potential enhanced risks in a pandemic. Despite this considerable overlap, specialist societies have not issued joint guidance, understandable given the short timelines of COVID-19 response. The recently written ‘shielding’ advice for protecting sick and vulnerable patients released by the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG),1 the British Society of Rheumatology (BSR)2 and the British Association of Dermatology (BAD)3 had some subtle differences that we want to highlight here as a catalyst for enhancing cross-speciality working.

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