Connecting IBD care at University Hospital Southampton
Connecting IBD care at University Hospital Southampton
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) continues to pose a complex and ongoing challenge for patients and healthcare systems alike. Conditions such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, characterised by unpredictable flare-ups, chronic inflammation and the need for lifelong monitoring, place a considerable burden on NHS resources. As patient numbers continue to rise, there is a growing recognition of the need for more accessible, efficient and patient-centred care pathways outside of the hospital setting. Diagnostic innovations that feature digital connectivity are critical to supporting home testing under clinical supervision, allowing patients to receive answers quickly with the guidance of their IBD teams.
University Hospital Southampton (UHS) NHS Foundation Trust is a leading centre that has taken IBD care closer to the patient by adopting integrated digital platforms. In this blog, we explore the challenges and successes of combining the SmarTest® Faecal Calprotectin Home Test from BIOHIT HealthCare with UHS’s MyMedicalRecord (MyMR) digital platform to enhance the service for flare management.1 This combination of home-based testing and secure data sharing allowed patients to manage their condition more proactively, while giving clinical teams faster access to the information they need to make timely and informed decisions.
Transforming IBD disease monitoring with at-home testing
Monitoring intestinal inflammation is central to effective IBD management, and faecal calprotectin is increasingly being used as a sensitive, non-invasive biomarker that enables clinicians to assess disease activity and predict flare-ups. Traditionally, patients have been asked to collect stool samples at home and return them by post for laboratory analysis, where they are tested for faecal calprotectin in accordance with the British Society of Gastroenterology guidelines.2 However, for patients with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, real-time monitoring of disease activity is critical to improving outcomes. The introduction of home faecal calprotectin testing has made a huge impact on patient’s wellbeing by providing timely results and prompt intervention as soon as it is necessary, all from the comfort of the home.
Bringing connectivity into clinical practice
The success of home testing depends not only on accurate and user-friendly solutions like the SmarTest, but also on how results are shared and acted upon. For many IBD clinics, at-home testing is starting to form part of a wider digital strategy designed to make data more accessible and enable clinicians to respond faster when results indicate a potential flare. The SmarTest Calprotectin Home Test allows patients to perform a simple, quantitative lateral flow test at home and receive results within minutes via an intuitive smartphone app. These results are also shared with the patient’s IBD team in real time, enabling timely action.
At UHS, this app-enabled protocol has been critical for SmarTest to form part of a digitally enhanced pathway for patients with IBD. Test results generated in the app are securely and automatically transferred into patients’ clinical records on the hospital’s MyMR system, allowing clinical teams to view patient-generated data within hours and respond accordingly. This connected approach has transformed turnaround times – from several weeks for laboratory tests to less than 12 hours – providing clinicians with fast, actionable and reliable results.
Validated home testing combined with secure digital integration supports real-time monitoring without requiring frequent in-person appointments. Patients can test from home, review their results instantly and trigger contact with their care team when necessary. This patient initiated follow-up (PIFU) approach not only enhances the patient’s control over their own condition, but also reduces the administrative and logistical pressures traditionally associated with IBD monitoring.
Improving patient experience
The introduction of home testing has had a measurable impact on both patient experience and healthcare efficiency. By allowing patients to test as soon as symptoms arise, flare-ups can be detected earlier and treated more promptly. The immediacy of results helps to reduce uncertainty and offers reassurance that clinical oversight is still maintained, even outside of traditional hospital settings. At UHS, early findings show that this novel digital ecosystem including home testing has contributed to a significant reduction in hospital appointments, with the average interval between outpatient visits increasing from around four months to nearly a year.1 Fewer unnecessary appointments allow IBD specialists to dedicate more time to patients requiring complex care or urgent intervention.
While the UHS model demonstrates the advantages of digital integration, the SmarTest Calprotectin Home Test remains highly effective as a standalone solution. The test is designed to be simple, reliable and accessible, and results can be shared securely through the app. This flexibility ensures that hospitals and clinics without advanced digital infrastructure can still benefit from faster results, improved patient engagement and reduced laboratory workload.
A connected future for IBD management
The experience at UHS highlights the potential of combining reliable at-home diagnostics with secure, streamlined communication to create a more connected and sustainable model of care starting at the patient’s home. By providing rapid, quantitative results and enabling patients to play an active role in monitoring their condition, the SmarTest is supporting the NHS vision of care to transition to out-of-hospital pathways for many chronic conditions, using PIFU where possible.3-5 Ultimately, this model enhances clinical efficiency, ensuring that care remains timely, consistent and centred around individual patient needs.
References
- Gwiggner M, et al. P323 Calprotectin home testing with digital integration into the electronic health record (EHR) in an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) support service. Gut. 2025;74:A288. doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2025-BSG.456.
- Moran GW, et al. British Society of Gastroenterology guidelines on inflammatory bowel disease in adults: 2025. Gut 2025;74:s1-s101.
- Whicher, T. Why PIFU could transform outpatient care. Clinical Services Journal. Published online May 19, 2022.
- The NHS Long Term Plan. https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-long-term-plan/
- The King’s Fund. The government’s 10-year plan for health and care. https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/projects/governments-long-term-plan-health-and-care.
