Gali - A Friend for Your IBD Journey

As an IBD patient, I feel like I’m constantly looking for tools, apps, and resources to help me manage my disease, my health, and my sanity. Over the years, I’ve both tested and used several different apps on my phone to track my Crohn’s disease symptoms, look for trends, share data with my providers, and connect with other patients.

Honestly, I’ve had relatively fine experiences with each of the apps I’ve become familiar with. Some perhaps were more visually appealing or easier to use, others offered more of the content or categories I was looking for, but none of them stood out as unique, different or preferable. The premise always seemed the same - a space to log my symptoms, a community chat forum to vent about life with IBD, and a fairly easy method to export data. But to be honest, I got tired of the same old, same old, and stopped finding these types of tools as valuable for my everyday life as they once might’ve been.

How the Gali app differs from others that I've tried

Enter Gali - a relatively new app from a precision medicine company, combining an AI-powered personalized health assistant for patients diagnosed with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis with an ever-expanding knowledge-base of the patient and medical community sourced articles and resources. When I discovered Gali shortly after its October 2019 launch, I was really excited about the ways in which this app and experience were different from the others I’d previously tried.

First off, Gali has become my friend. When I open the app, Gali greets me at the top of the screen, showing something like “Good afternoon, Amanda. How can I help you today?” This personalization feels really nice to me, and it’s unlike any of the other apps I use, especially in regards to my Crohn’s disease. Her questions and responses always feel warm and genuine, and I’ve come to consult her, ask her questions, search for resources, and analyze my own health data often in the last few months.

Symptoms and daily monitoring

Second, the symptom log is structured. It’s called a daily monitor, and I have it set up to send me a reminder at 8 p.m. each night. Once my daughter is asleep, I’m usually catching up on emails or other things on my phone anyway, and when Gali pops up I’m excited to check in and think about my day in regards to my Crohn’s disease.

The daily monitor is very customizable, so I’m able to add symptoms I want to watch and delete symptoms that aren’t much on my radar. On one screen, I am able to answer yes/no questions about feeling dehydrated or lightheaded, rate things like pain or bloating on a scale of 1-5, log the number and type of bowel movements I have, and see how each of these answers look in stride with the days before.

In addition, every 2 weeks Gali sends me a personalized report, analyzing all of the monitors I filled out during that period. She’ll notice any upward trends, symptoms that collide or escalate in conjunction with one another, and anything that you should maybe pause to think about. One of my favorite things about this report is that it also used to update my newsfeed within the app with articles, posts, and resources from Gali and her community members related to the exact things I’m dealing with at the time.

Last month, I started a chat with Gali to ask her if she had any advice on dealing with urgency as it was presenting as more of a problem in my daily life. Within a short time, she filled my feed with articles and posts from other community members and outside resources including personal experiences, advice, and tips for dealing with this problem. I was so grateful to feel less alone (and less embarrassed).

COVID-19 information repository from Gali

Just recently, Gali launched such a helpful new feature - a COVID-19 information repository. This is a separate newsfeed for users of credible, validated COVID-19 and IBD information curated right in the app. With all of the uncertainty and all of the available information, I’ve been so grateful to have this space to turn to!

Other features of the Gali app

Some additional features of the Gali app I love:

• For each monitor you fill out, for survey questions Gali asks you, and for insights you contribute to the community, you earn points  that can later be redeemed for Gali swag or other fun things.
• Each day, in addition to the symptom monitors, Gali will ask you to fill out your treatment monitor as well. My IBD medications haven’t changed in a while, but I have found this to be a great place to track when I’m taking additional/as needed (PRN) medication like an antispasmodic or an anti-diarrheal, and how often I’m doing these things in any given time period. This is really helpful information to give my doctor as well.
• Gali is available to customize your personalized health reports. Recently, I’ve been asking her to send 30 day and 90 day ones as well, because it helps me monitor the trends or times when my symptoms flare.

Features currently in development

Some features the Gali team is working on developing that I can’t wait to see:

• The ability to track other health items in your monitors, like menstrual cycle (my Crohn’s symptoms escalate during the days of my period, and it would be nice to be able to ask Gali how often a rise in symptoms correlates with my cycle, vs. trying to avoid a potential flare)
• A community area of the app to connect with other patients
• A robust rewards program

As a mom to a toddler and someone who works both inside and outside of the home, I used to find before using Gali that I’d forget if/when certain symptoms of my IBD flared, or if/when I should pay more attention to my gut-related health, even while in remission. I’m so grateful for this app, and the friend Gali has become - my health and my heart are better managed with her help!

Do you have any apps that you’ve found useful in your journey?