IBD experts empathise with patients after release of new app

Inflammatory bowel disease experts in Southampton have become the first in the country to experience a day in the life of their patients through a new mobile phone app.

Doctors, nurses, dietitians and pharmacists at University Hospital Southampton (UHS) are using the In My Shoes app to understand how Crohn’s disease and colitis impact patients’ lives.

The chronic conditions, which affect more than 300,000 people across the UK, are the two main forms of inflammatory bowel disease and can cause fatigue, significant abdominal pain, malnutrition and frequent and severe diarrhoea.

The app, launched across the UK on Tuesday, has been developed by national charity Crohn’s and Colitis UK and Takeda UK to deliver notifications to users which include a three-minute warning to find a toilet and if a type of food may trigger symptoms.

A UHS spokesman said: “It aims to break down stigma, reduce isolation and encourage people to think of ways they can support friends, family and colleagues living with IBD, as well as prompting conversations between patients and their healthcare teams.”

Consultant gastroenterologist Dr Fraser Cummings said: “This app is thought-provoking and will be useful for improving understanding among family and friends and may help assure patients that the teams looking after them have increased insight into the impact these conditions have on every aspect of their lives.”

Anna Wills, senior gastroenterology dietitian, said: “I like to think I have a lot of empathy with patients but the app certainly made me more aware of what patients face day-to-day – we only had a taster for 24 hours, they live with this every day.”