To help people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) manage the complex and unpredictable disorder, Gali Health has introduced an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered personal health assistant.
The free application for iOS devices, named Gali after its developer, offers access to medically vetted information, daily health monitoring, analytical tools, and emotional support. It also connects users to other patients globally.
“Our design philosophy for Gali was to create a deeply personalized experience for people with IBD,” Ilya Kupershmidt, Gali Health founder and CEO, said in a press release. “Gali understands the importance of tailored self management and works proactively with each person to provide support on the medical, lifestyle and psychological aspects of living with a chronic disease.”
The idea is to help the more than 3 million individuals in the U.S. with IBD to manage the disease between doctor appointments. The company says those living with IBD are open to mobile solutions to health concerns, but current technologies can’t fully handle these individuals’ complex and diverse health management needs.
A San Francisco-based health technology company, Gali uses cutting-edge AI technology. It seeks to continuously learn from patients and healthcare providers, who contribute their insight and experiences to Gali’s collective knowledge. While mobilizing personal health information to customize support, Gali turns the contributions into actionable collective intelligence.
“Gali Health truly empowers patients with its unique, community-centric approach to chronic disease management,” said Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures, a Gali Health investor. “We are excited to support the company’s vision of combining AI, health technologies and population sequencing to develop novel personalized solutions.”
Gali was designed in partnership with patient advocates as part of the Gali Health Ambassadors program. Participants provide feedback, guidance, and leadership within the Gali user community.
In the future, Gali will evolve to interact in a more human-like way, speaking many languages and supporting many more conditions, the company said in a product video accompanying the press release. It also is expected to be able to analyze genome and microbiome information to help develop personalized treatments.
The Gali mobile application may be downloaded here.
IBD is an idiopathic, dysregulated, relapsing, and debilitating immune reaction to the body’s intestinal microflora, triggered by a host of factors. The two most common forms of IBD are ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.