PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY
Transition care helps teenagers and young adults with long-term health issues like lupus move from pediatric to adult healthcare systems. This process is often difficult, with only 50% successfully making the transition
We developed a new transition model that starts at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and moves to the Young Adult Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (YASLE) Clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital when patients turn 18. The unique feature of this model is that patients see both pediatric and adult doctors for 4 years before continuing with only the adult doctor.
We reviewed the medical records of all patients with lupus who graduated from SickKids over a 7-year period. Our study showed that this model works well: 98.2% of patients saw the YASLE doctors within a year (usually in about 3.5 months), 97.5% came back for more than 1 visit, and 94.2% kept getting care at MSH for an average of more than 5 years.
We suggest that other clinics use this transition model. Key parts of its success are the teamwork and good communication between the pediatric and adult doctors and with patients and their families.
