NHS Patient Management Software — Gastroenterology

IBD Patient Management Software

ProtoFlex IBD gives NHS gastroenterology teams a complete patient management system for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis — clinical pathway management, between-appointment monitoring, structured symptom data collection, condition-specific questionnaires and UK IBD Audit data capture, in a single configurable platform.

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What ProtoFlex Does

A Complete IBD Patient Management System

ProtoFlex IBD combines structured clinical pathway management for gastroenterology teams with integrated patient engagement between appointments — creating a continuous care loop that keeps patients connected and gives clinical teams better data visibility between clinic visits.

Clinical Pathway Management

A complete IBD patient management system for gastroenterology services — giving clinical teams a unified view of their patient population and the tools to manage it proactively.

Active patient list with patient pathway and management status

Biologic therapy monitoring and renewal tracking

Annual review scheduling and completion tracking

Bloods and biomarker tracking (CRP, calprotectin, Hb)

UK IBD Audit data capture and export

Shared care coordination with primary care and infusion units

Between-Appointment Engagement

Structured digital touchpoints that keep patients engaged, monitored and supported between clinic appointments — turning the care gap into a continuous care relationship.

Symptom questionnaires aligned to recognised IBD indices (HBI for Crohn's, sCAI for UC) — completed by patients and reviewed by the clinical team

Medication reminders and adherence tracking

Faecal calprotectin and test result logging by patients

Structured escalation pathways — right care at the right time

Secure IBD nurse messaging and care coordination

Patient education content personalised to diagnosis and therapy

Built on the ProtoFlex Platform

The IBD solution is built on the same configurable ProtoFlex platform used across complex and chronic disease pathways. Clinical teams retain full control over how the pathway is configured — adapting workflows, alert thresholds and patient-facing content to local protocols without developer intervention.

Explore the platform

Need to extend your current system rather than replace it? See how Companion Protocols work, or explore our NHS interoperability approach.

The Differentiator

Care That Doesn't Stop at the Clinic Door

The ProtoFlex IBD engagement model extends the reach of the clinical team into the periods between appointments — where the real clinical risk lies, and where digital tools have the most to offer.

Between-Appointment Symptom Monitoring

Patients complete validated symptom scores on a cadence set by the clinical team — providing a structured record of symptom changes between clinic visits. Score changes meeting configurable thresholds send notifications to the IBD nursing team for review, giving clinical teams earlier visibility of patients whose scores have changed, so they can review and respond as they see fit.

Medication Adherence

Reminders and adherence check-ins for biologics and immunomodulators — with clinician visibility across the patient population. Non-adherence is a leading driver of avoidable IBD flares.

Structured Escalation

A clinician-defined escalation pathway helps patients understand what to do when symptoms worsen — helping to channel those responses appropriately and reducing unnecessary telephone triage burden on IBD nurses.

Test Result Logging

Patients can log faecal calprotectin results directly into their record — feeding into the clinical view. Gastroenterology teams widely use calprotectin as a marker of IBD disease activity; trends in patient-logged results give the clinical team useful context between appointments.

Personalised Monitoring Cadence

Monitoring intensity is configured by the clinical team — more frequent check-ins for patients recently started on biologics or in partial remission, lighter-touch for those who are stable.

Patient Education

Condition-specific, clinician-curated education content delivered at the right moment — covering diet, medications, travel, fertility and other topics that IBD patients frequently struggle to find reliable guidance on.

Why NHS Services Need This

The Case for Digital IBD Management

IBD — Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis — affects over 500,000 people in the UK with a lifelong, relapsing-remitting course requiring sustained specialist management. Without digital tools to monitor patients between clinic visits, flares escalate into emergencies that are both avoidable and expensive.

NHS Financial Burden

£500m+

Annual NHS direct cost of IBD — driven by biologic therapies, emergency admissions and unplanned procedures. A substantial proportion is avoidable with earlier intervention.

Scale of the Challenge

500,000

People living with IBD in the UK — with demand on gastroenterology services growing year on year as prevalence continues to rise.

The Appointment Gap

6–12 months

Typical interval between outpatient appointments for stable IBD patients — leaving flares to escalate with no structured clinical touchpoint in between.

The Opportunity

1 in 3

IBD-related emergency attendances may be associated with potentially avoidable delays in clinical review — highlighting the case for tools that support better-connected care between appointments.

The core problem is not clinical knowledge — it is the gap. IBD teams know what good care looks like, but they have no means to extend it beyond the clinic walls. Patients manage complex, unpredictable disease in isolation between appointments — without the tools to recognise early warning signs, stay adherent to therapy, or know when and how to escalate.

Sources: Crohn's & Colitis UK; NHS England Gastroenterology Waiting Time Data; British Society of Gastroenterology IBD Standards (2019); NICE Technology Appraisals (biologic therapies in IBD).

The Impact

What Better-Connected IBD Care Can Deliver

By giving clinical teams better data visibility and structured patient engagement tools, NHS IBD teams are better equipped to focus nursing time on patients who need active clinical input, support adherence, and work towards reducing avoidable emergency admissions.

Cost Avoidance

£2,500+

Saved per prevented emergency admission — with each IBD flare hospitalisation costing the NHS an average of £2,500–£3,500 per episode.

Earlier Intervention

Days sooner

Patients with changing symptom scores are surfaced to clinical teams for their review — giving clinicians the information to respond where appropriate before a situation escalates.

Clinical Time Back

Less admin

Annual review data, audit submissions and patient-reported outcomes captured digitally — reducing clinic preparation time and manual data entry for IBD nurses.

Patient Confidence

Better QoL

Patients with a clear escalation pathway and consistent digital touchpoints report reduced anxiety and greater confidence managing their condition between appointments.

Common Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Does ProtoFlex IBD capture UK IBD Audit data?

Yes. ProtoFlex IBD includes structured data capture and export aligned to UK IBD Audit requirements. Annual review data, endoscopy outcomes and treatment records are captured in a format that supports audit submission, reducing the manual extraction burden on IBD nurses and clinical teams.

Does the symptom scoring use validated IBD indices?

ProtoFlex IBD supports configurable symptom questionnaires including the patient-completed questions that form the basis of recognised IBD indices such as HBI (Crohn's) and sCAI (UC). Completed responses are stored in the patient record and presented to the clinical team — the clinical team reviews and interprets scores using their own clinical judgement.

Can ProtoFlex integrate with our existing gastroenterology EPR?

Yes. ProtoFlex Connect supports NHS interoperability via HL7 FHIR and API integration. ProtoFlex can run as a companion alongside your existing EPR — adding IBD-specific pathway management and patient engagement without replacing your core clinical system.

How does ProtoFlex help IBD nurses manage their caseload?

ProtoFlex gives IBD nurses a real-time view of their entire patient population — surfacing patients with score changes that meet locally-configured notification thresholds, whose biologic therapy is due for review, or who are overdue for annual review. Structured escalation pathways and secure messaging reduce reactive telephone demand, so nursing time is focused on patients who need active clinical input.

Does ProtoFlex support biologic therapy monitoring?

Yes. ProtoFlex IBD includes biologic therapy monitoring and renewal tracking, with patient-facing adherence reminders and clinician-side visibility of adherence across the cohort. Non-adherence to biologic therapy is one of the leading drivers of avoidable IBD flares and emergency admissions.

Get Started

See ProtoFlex IBD in Action

Whether you're an IBD clinical lead, service manager or digital health lead, we'd be delighted to show you how ProtoFlex can help your team deliver better-connected care for Crohn's and UC patients.

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IBD Clinical Leads

See how ProtoFlex maps to your existing IBD pathways and co-design a configuration that fits your service — without IT procurement risk.

IBD Nurses & Service Managers

Explore how between-appointment engagement reduces reactive caseload demand and gives you better visibility of which patients need attention now.

Digital Health Leads

Understand ProtoFlex's integration architecture, IG and DSPT posture, and how it connects with your EPR, results systems and existing patient-facing tools.