Mobile Applications for Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

With increased access to high-speed Internet and smartphone devices, patients have started to use mobile applications (apps) for various health needs. This chapter provides a synopsis of the common mobile apps available in Apple iTunes and/or Google Play that are relevant to patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The apps are classified into following broad categories: general purpose, health education, symptom tracking/self-management, collaborative disease management and miscellaneous. We also provide an in-depth qualitative review of some of the representative apps in each category. While some of these apps are now widely utilized, up to this date there is a dearth of published evidence as to whether utilization of these apps can lead to improvement in process metrics (such as patient knowledge or experience) or outcome metrics for patients with IBD.