Exploring the potential in utilising smartphones to aid in the treatment and management of inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is an incurable chronic illness needing ongoing outpatient treatment and support. This paper identifies a number of challenges faced by the various stakeholders of the illness, much of which is rooted in a need for more information on how lifestyle, in a broad sense, impacts the disease and explores the potential to utilise smartphones to address some of the identified concerns. Mobile Health (m-Health) is a growing field, with smartphones being widely adopted across the healthcare arena. We identify an appetite among IBD patients for a smartphone solution which aids in the self-management of the disease and assists in communicating their needs to their respective clinical teams. Several examples of how smartphones have been utilised to aid in the treatment and management of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and some mental health conditions, which share similar challenges to that of IBD were explored, giving precedent as to how the technology could be utilised in the context of IBD. From the evidence at hand, we propose that smartphones provide a promising opportunity to develop a tool to aid in the treatment and management of IBD and outline the scope of future research into the field.