AIML and CCCure use machine learning to improve outcomes for those with IBD
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic condition that causes inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, leading to symptoms such as abdominal pain, fatigue, and impaired digestion.
IBD affects more than 6.8 million people worldwide. In Australia, over 180,000 people are currently living with IBD, including both Crohn鈥檚 disease and ulcerative colitis, which often require long-term and complex medical management. With rates continuing to rise globally,
In response to the growing challenge, New South Wales-based Crohn鈥檚 Colitis Cure (CCCure) was formed in 2011 to improve care for people with IBD, with the ultimate goal of finding a cure. Since 2011, CCCure has used advanced data technologies to support people with IBD and their clinicians, providing data and analytics to researchers and developers to drive innovative and personalised treatments.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is characterised by chronic, ongoing inflammation and damage to the gastrointestinal tract.
AIML Professor Lyle Palmer and research assistant Victor Caquilpan Parra began collaborating with CCCure in early 2024 to develop a web service platform that enables medical centres and pharmaceutical companies to access meaningful clinical insights. By applying machine learning to complex clinical data, the team aims to advance IBD research and provide high quality, effective, and consistent care for patients.
鈥淲e are excited to be partnering with CCCure to build advanced data pipelines and visualisation, and in applying machine learning to the wicked problems in IBD,鈥 said Professor Palmer, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at AIML. 鈥淚BD is a substantial and growing burden on the Australian population and new approaches are urgently needed to improve disease management and patient outcomes.鈥
The new platform, called IBD-PERFECT, will bring together de-identified patient data from across Australia and New Zealand to track and analyse how well people with IBD are being cared for. By combining thousands of medical records into one system, it enables comprehensive analytics of treatment patterns and outcomes, helping doctors see where care is working well and where improvements are needed. Machine learning algorithms will be used to automatically process complex medical documents and extract useful details that might otherwise be missed by manual inspection. These advanced analytics will make it easier to spot trends, identify gaps in care, and even predict which patients may need more intensive treatment. For patients, this means more consistent, higher-quality care, with clinicians better equipped to tailor treatments and improve long-term health outcomes.
The collaboration has already made an impact, with 6 out of 17 research abstracts submitted to this year鈥檚 in Melbourne being authored by both partner organisations. CCCure Chair and Medical Director Professor Jane M. Andrews, Board Member Professor Susan Connor, Head of Operations Ren茅e Deschenes, and Research Fellow Dr Rodger Wu recently visited AIML to explore ways to further develop the platform and ensure its value to a wide range of users.
鈥淟ots of exciting things to come,鈥 said Professor Andrews after her visit to AIML. 鈥淲e are working with AIML to deliver clinically useful data services now to clinical teams and consumers... as our data set grows and we expand our capabilities, we hope to deliver more insights into care and maybe even into a cure.鈥
(L-R): CCCure鈥檚 Ren茅e Deschenes, Professor Jane M. Andrews, Professor Susan Connor, and Dr Rodger Wu with AIML鈥檚 Victor Caquilpan Parra in front of the AIML building, 15 August 2025.
For Parra, the project has also been a significant learning opportunity.
鈥淭he data infrastructure work we're developing is helping to build meaningful platforms that can support better healthcare insights in IBD care and treatment, as well as related research,鈥 he said. 鈥淐ontributing to the data analytics and extract-transform-load (ETL, a three-phase process for integrating data from various sources into a central repository) processes and platform design has been a valuable learning experience and reflects the collaborative efforts between AIML and CCCure.鈥
CCCure plans to release IBD-PERFECT in late 2025. The application will help clinicians and patients alike access the knowledge needed for better clinical decision-making.
To learn more, .