Current and Future Role of Precision Medicine in the Management of IBD

Abstract Purpose of Review Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) poses a looming global health burden characterized by increasing prevalence and healthcare costs. This is despite significant advances in available therapeutics and disease monitoring strategies over the past 25 years. A precision medicine approach promises to enhance personalized medicine through improved prediction models, precise diagnoses, and individualized treatment strategies. Recent Findings Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are now being incorporated into endoscopy, histology, and radiology research with the aim of improving objective, reproducible, and timely assessments of IBD. High-throughput platforms – including genetics (e.g. single nucleotide polymorphisms and polygenic risk scores), messenger RNA expression (e.g. transcript sets), and comprehensive protein and metabolite measurements – have the potential to uncover biomarkers that aim to resolve ambiguous disease states, provide risk stratification (e.g. of disease complications and response to treatment), and reveal mechanistic insight. Summary This review highlights recent advances in AI and high-dimensional molecular profiling in IBD, focusing on methodological and translational challenges that will need to be addressed to fully realize precision medicine’s potential in clinical care.