The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation Of America Introduces GI Buddy
Bala Cynwyd, PA (PRWEB) August 15, 2013 -- The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America is getting more mobile with a new interactive disease management tracker GI Buddy (available online and as an iPhone® app) and mobile friendly website. GI Buddy allows users to manage and track all aspects of their disease and construct a comprehensive view of disease impact including: symptoms, treatment, diet, and lifestyle.
Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, collectively known as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), are chronic, relapsing inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract that significantly affect patients both physically and emotionally. Given the unpredictable nature of IBD, it requires that patients actively manage and report on their disease. However, few tools currently exist to promote self-management and optimize patient-physician communication across all aspects of the disease.
“As the leaders in patient education and support, the CCFA developed GI Buddy with the goal of ultimately improving the patient’s quality of life,” said Raymond Cross, MD, chair of CCFA’s Patient Education Committee and associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland. “We live in a mobile society so by creating a tool that fits with people’s lifestyles, we are likely to see better compliance. We know that effective self management of the disease is essential for good health.”
GI Buddy was created by a team of experts in technology and IBD. The tool enables patients to quickly and easily manage and track all aspects of their disease like symptoms they are experiencing, missed doses of treatments, foods they’ve eaten, and their overall well-being, in real-time. Additional features of the tool include the ability to add questions and access CCFA’s Online Community forums (CCFACommunity.org).
GI Buddy also provides comprehensive reports that help users better understand potential factors that may impact their disease and can share this information with their doctors. The reports can be accessed and emailed through the mobile app or IBDetermined.org. Users can use these reports to accurately assess their health records and make basic correlations between inputs.
“While tracking the information is important, the key to better health is to be able to analyze and assess the information,” Cross said. “GI Buddy enables the patient to do both quickly and easily.”
About Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis
Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are painful, medically incurable illnesses that attack the digestive system. Crohn's disease may attack anywhere from the mouth to the anus, while ulcerative colitis inflames only the large intestine (colon). Symptoms may include abdominal pain, persistent diarrhea, rectal bleeding, fever and weight loss. Many patients require hospitalization and surgery. These illnesses can cause severe complications, including colon cancer in patients with long-term disease. Some 1.4 million American adults and children suffer from Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, with as many as 150,000 under the age of 18. Most people develop the diseases between the ages of 15 and 35.
The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America is a voluntary, non-profit national organization, seeks to cure Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, and to improve the quality of life of children and adults affected by these diseases. To contact the local CCFA office, call 215-396-9100, write: CCFA, 150 Monument Rd, Suite 402, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004, or e-mail jbrookstein(at)ccfa(dot)org.
Jessica Brookstein, Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America, http://www.ccfa.org, 215-396-9100, [email protected]
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