Abstract Background Digital health offers transformative potential in facilitating healthcare delivery amid the compounding burden of IBD. The 2025 Australian ‘State of the Nation’ report highlights widespread healthcare navigation challenges for people with IBD1. These include fragmented care coordination and high reliance on emergency services, contributing to poor consumer experiences and rising healthcare expenditure. The methodology for developing a consumer/clinician co-created IBD app is described. Methods A core working group comprised of three gastroenterologists and a GI-specialised psychologist as clinical leads, and a six-person software team (software engineers, AI developer, project coordinator, and a user experience/design expert) was established. Additional input was sought from key stakeholders, including IBD nurse specialists and a paediatric gastroenterologist. Horizon scanning to systematically evaluate the mobile app landscape in IBD was performed to contextualise consumer needs. Two independent surveys by Crohn’s Colitis Cure and the software team identified consumer needs and preferences. Focus groups were held iteratively until data saturation, enabling the co-creation of job stories that reflected real-world needs. Job stories were translated into app features and scored out of 5 by importance as a feature, and the commonality/frequency amongst responders. Regular meetings of the core group were held to refine job stories and guide feature set design and development. Results 364 participants/consumers (median age: 40, 61% female) responded to surveys. 76% of respondents were from Australian/New Zealand and 24% from the UK/USA. Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis comprised 59. 1%/39. 8% of the cohort respectively. The final features identified for development include symptom tracking, healthcare team communication, mental health screening, personal clinical data integration, care organisation, and an interactive large language model built on trusted information. The design allows for both independent function and bi-directional integration with Crohn’s Colitis Care (CCCare) electronic medical records. Conclusion Through consumer/clinician co-creation, we identified key app features to address healthcare navigation challenges, improve clinical care quality and efficiency. The resulting feature set of the patient-facing mobile app has been designed for bi-directional integration with the CCCare and clinical practice integration. Reference: 1. Crohn’s Colitis Australia. State of the Nation in Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Australia: Final Report. February, 2025. Accessed May 1, 2025. https: //crohnsandcolitis. org. au/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/CCAState-of-the-Nation-in-IBD-1. pdf Conflict of interest: Dr. Chan, Patrick: No conflicts of interest. Connor, Susan Jane: Research Support: Abbvie, Agency for Clinical Innovation, Amgen, BMS, Chiesi, Celltrion, DrFalk, Ferring, Janssen, Medical Research Future Fund, Pfizer, South Western Sydney Local Health District, Sydney Partnership for Health, Research and Enterprise, Takeda and The Leona M and Harry B Helmsley Charitable Trust Ad Boards: Abbvie, Amgen, BMS, Celltrion, Eli Lilly, Ferring, GSK, Janssen, Organon, Pfizer, Takeda Speaker Fees: Abbvie, Cornerstones Health, Dr Falk, Ferring, Janssen, Pfizer, Sandoz, Sydney IBD School, Takeda Educational Support: DrFalk, Sandoz, Takeda Knowles, Simon Robert: No conflicts of interest. Andrews, Jane Mary: Grant: This project is supported from a grant by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. The work I will present was funded via CCCure. CCCure’s funding sources include grants for research and payments for data reports from Pharma including AbbVie, J&J, Takeda, Celltrion, Falk, Ferring, BMS, Janssen, Pfizer, Sandoz
Chan et al. (2026) studied this question.