Defining the Future of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Care: The Pivotal Role of Personalised Treatment

At the 14th Annual Congress of European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO), a symposium was convened to discuss the present and future of personalised care for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD is not one disease: the clinical presentation, disease course, and treatment response differ in every patient. As such, personalised care is considered the best approach for effective management. Importantly, it is acknowledged that IBD is not confined to the gut. Although the predominant symptoms manifest in the organ, the inflammation is likely to be systemic. The importance of learning from and collaborating with specialists who treat associated conditions, such as spondyloarthritis (SpA), will become the key to managing IBD at the individual level. IBD is known to be influenced by genetic as well as environmental factors; however, some are yet to be identified. Advances in understanding ‘omes’ (e.g., genome, transcriptome, microbiome, etc.) and how they impact a person’s IBD journey are rapidly occurring. At the congress, experts provided their insights into recent developments in personalised care and how to optimise current tools at their disposal, as well as evolving methodologies that are anticipated to offer increased efficiency in the future, e.g., the introduction of systems biology.