IBD in the 21st Century - App Tracking

[brooklyn23]

Does anyone use an app on their smartphone to track their symptoms?

I started using MyIBD recently. I briefly used the one from CCFA but I like this one a bit better. It has separate areas for tracking stools, food and appetite, etc... and one of the features I really like is it has a pain tracking tool that lets you designate where on the abdomen you're feeling the pain and put it on a 1-10 scale.

It's really helpful for me (because of my atypical presentation) because I can look back and feel validated, like "oh yeah, I was in enough pain at these times throughout the day that I actually took the time to log it".

Does anyone else use it?

Also, there's an IndieGoGo campaign for an app called FlareDown, which is used for tracking treatments, symptoms, stressors, etc.

 

[JMC]

I don't use an App, but I do have a spreadsheet that I built in Google Docs which I update on a daily basis. I have been using it to track my health, diet and exercise for about 9 months and it has been extremely useful.

 

[xmdmom]

THis is tangentially related but I think might be of interest to you.

http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2015/02/19/smart-phone-medicine-the-doctor-in-your-pocket/ Podcast

This is an interview with Dr. Eric Topol, the editor and chief of medscape.
He envisions smart phones transforming medicine. It's worth a listen.

"What Devices Can Do
Wearable devices will soon be able to help us discover hidden problems like sleep apnea or elevated eyeball pressure. When people are ill, they will be able to stay home and monitor their vital signs from the comfort of their own bedrooms instead of a hospital room with people running in and out at all hours.

Will these changes help people get access to their own medical data? That is the only way they will truly be able to participate in making informed decisions about their own health care. Dr. Topol sees this as completely feasible, along with patients participating in getting the right diagnosis with the help of their smart phones. We also discuss the pros and cons of on-demand medicine."

 

[FrozenGirl]

I use Gibodyguard, it is developed by the CCFC (Canada). I like it because it has stool, meds, and food and drink and will graph it for you. You can add your own symptoma which is helpful (for example I alternate feverish gotten freezing so I put cold/hot as a symptom.) also lets you define stool form, pain (and location) blood, and color of blood.

 

[brooklyn23]

Gibodyguard sounds a lot like what mine allows me to do, not color of blood. I tend to type that into a notes section. Blood is pretty rare. The pain location is really useful for me, I find.