Inflammatory bowel disease is on the rise globally and affects estimated 65,000 Danes, of which many get diagnosed in early adulthood. This has great consequences for the individual patient and for society in relation to healthcare costs and challenges for some to complete an education or stay in employment. Management of the disease is facing several clinical challenges due to late detection of disease, yet unpredictable fluctuations in disease activity and great heterogeneity in disease course and treatment response. We seek to address these clinical challenges using a data-driven approach. Hear how we leverage the unique resources of Danish healthcare data and combine this with omics analyses of biological samples from the Danish National Biobank in order to answer important clinical questions with the ultimate goal to improve treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Despite great progress and valuable new insights there is still a long way to go before personalized treatment is a reality. But with new technical advances perhaps we are moving from utopia towards a realistic hope for the future.