Inflammatory Bowel Disease
In 2015, it was estimated that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affected over 3 million individuals in the United States, resulting more than $6 billion in associated healthcare-related costs. The prevalence of IBD is increasing annually, with averages estimates at approximately 5%. IBD can lead to serious complications like colorectal cancer and is poised to have a substantial impact on an individual’s quality of life, and the resources required by a healthcare system to treat IBD and its related comorbidities . At the Centre for SMART Health, we’re using wearable devices and smart form questionnaires to better track IBD patients’ fatigue and activity levels after GI-related interventions. Looking at patients with active and inactive inflammatory bowel disease, we are correlating disease activity to physiologic, behavioral, serologic, and microbiome data longitudinally to develop and deploy non-invasive tools to track disease activity. This data is allowing us to better identify new and ongoing symptoms, and helps clinicians identify ways to improve post-GI-related procedure care.