Mother creates app to help manage her son’s chronic condition

The Eli App was born out of necessity—an effort to make health routines more manageable and engaging for children with chronic conditions. For children with sickle cell, like Funmi’s son, maintaining a strict daily routine is crucial to preventing pain crises and other complications. Staying hydrated, taking medication on time, getting enough sleep, and following a nutritious diet can significantly impact their well-being, yet these habits can be difficult to maintain, especially for a child. To address this, Funmi designed a simple reward-based system to encourage her son to follow these essential routines. The success of this method inspired her to build an app that could help other families facing similar challenges.

Eli integrates essential features like mood tracking, water intake monitoring, medication reminders, and a pain diary, allowing parents and children to document symptoms in real time. This structured approach makes it easier to report pain episodes to healthcare professionals, ensuring more informed treatment decisions. The app’s development has since evolved to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), which analyzes the data collected over time. This AI functionality helps identify patterns and trends in the child’s health behavior, predicting potential health concerns and enabling parents to proactively adjust routines and strategies to improve well-being. For example, the app might recognize trends in hydration or pain flare-ups, offering recommendations to optimize health management before issues escalate.

Beyond its functional tools, Eli also addresses the emotional and social aspects of chronic illness. Through brand partnerships, children can earn rewards for their health-conscious behaviors, reinforcing positive habits while fostering a sense of inclusion. This aspect helps combat the isolation often felt by children with long-term conditions, turning the often overwhelming task of managing health into an engaging and supportive experience.

Funmi’s vision extends beyond individual users—she aspires for Eli to gain NHS recognition as a recommended tool for children with sickle cell. The app is currently in its pre-launch phase, with access being managed through a waiting list. At present, the app is not yet available for general purchase but is actively being tested with early users.

Adapted from:
https://nhscep.com/2024/08/21/our-patients-funmi-vanessa-ullam/

For more information:
https://www.elihealth.io/

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