P06705-year Inflammatory Bowel Disease nursing helpline trends in a real-world Australasian cohort: Crohn’s Colitis Cure data insight’s program

Abstract Background IBD helplines are now established as vital tools for delivering patient-centred care and improving healthcare navigation1. Rising patient volumes, complex treatment regimens, and administrative demands have led to increasing strain on IBD nursing staff and represent a growing workload burden. We analysed IBD-helpline usage data from 12 Australasian sites to characterise current trends. Methods Crohn’s Colitis Care (CCCare–https://c-c-cure.org/) is a cloud-based IBD-specific electronic medical record implemented in multiple Australian and New Zealand care sites. Helpline encounter related documentation enables prospective capture of data. De-identified helpline-associated data prospectively entered from October 2020 to October 2025 were analysed. Results Helpline data was generated from 10,102 people with IBD, 5520 (54.6%) with Crohn’s Disease, 4309 (42.7%) ulcerative colitis, and 273 (2.7%) IBD-unclassified. Their median age was 41 years (IQR 28.5-53.5) and 48.9% were male. A total of 38,999 helpline contacts across 3219 individuals (31.9% of the cohort utilised the helpline), of whom 60.8% were currently prescribed an advanced therapy. Across the 5-year period, 58.8% of contacts were by email, compared to 41.2% by phone. Email increased to 81.3% in the most recent 12 months. Only 13.9% of contacts were considered as a ‘clinical concern’ (change in symptoms, medication adverse event), whilst over 60% were judged ‘administrative’ in nature (general admin, pathology form requests, admin pertaining to advanced therapy funding and approval). “Other” reasons for contact related to script, general medication/endoscopy related queries, or investigation results. Contact reasons are summarised in Figure 1. The administrative proportion (general and related to advanced therapy funding/approval) of helpline queries increased from the 2020-2023 period (44.7-53.7%) to 2023-2025 (62.8-69.4%). Conversely, clinical queries decreased from 13.1-19.1% in 2020-2023, to 10.6-13.6% in 2023-2025 (p 0.001). In a multinomial logistic regression, longer disease duration (5 years vs 2 years) showed the strongest association with helpline contact reason (OR = 2.13, p 0.001), with patients diagnosed 5 years more likely to seek administrative over clinical support. Conclusion This multi-site real-world review of IBD helpline data shows most contacts are administrative over clinical, with the entirety of contacts arising from a third of the total cohort. These findings highlight a rising admin load hindering clinical capacity and a need to characterise factors associated with helpline usage. Innovative digital solutions may streamline low-complexity requests, ease manual and clinician workload to focus on higher-value care and proactive disease management. Reference: 1. Hare N, Norton C, Irving P, Czuber-Dochan W. Inflammatory Bowel Disease Advice Lines: A Scoping Review. Crohns 7(3):otaf051. doi: 10.1093/crocol/otaf051 Conflict of interest: Dr. Chan, Patrick: No conflicts of interest. Wu, Rodger: No conflicts of interest. Knowles, Simon Robert: No conflicts of interest. Andrews, Jane Mary: The work I will present was funded via CCCure. CCCure’s funding sources include grants for research and payments for data reports from Pharma including AbbVie, J & J, Takeda, Celltrion, Falk, Ferring, BMS, Janssen, Pfizer, Sandoz Connor, Susan Jane: Research Support: Abbvie, Agency for Clinical Innovation, Amgen, BMS, Chiesi, Celltrion, DrFalk, Ferring, Janssen, Medical Research Future Fund, Pfizer, South Western Sydney Local Health District, Sydney Partnership for Health, Research and Enterprise, Takeda and The Leona M and Harry B Helmsley Charitable Trust Ad Boards: Abbvie, Amgen, BMS, Celltrion, Eli Lilly, Ferring, GSK, Janssen, Organon, Pfizer, Takeda Speaker Fees: Abbvie, Cornerstones Health, Dr Falk, Ferring, Janssen, Pfizer, Sandoz, Sydney IBD School, Takeda Educational Support: DrFalk, Sandoz, Takeda