About CrohnOlogy
A symptom tracker built by a family who needed one, shared with other families who might too.
In late October 2025, we started seeing blood in Max's stools consistently. By early December, he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. He was 10 and a half.
Like any parent, we started taking photos and writing things down, trying to keep track of what was happening. But it was hard to see if anything was having an impact. Was it the food? The medication? The stress? Everything blurred together, and the notebook we were keeping somehow always seemed to be at home on the day of an appointment.
Why I built it
Our family needed a tool. I'm a former software developer, now a product manager, and with the advent of agentic AI, I realised I could build something we needed, something I couldn't have built on my own before. And if we needed it, other families managing the same journey might need it too.
CrohnOlogy started as a tool for us. It became something worth sharing.
Why privacy came first
When I thought about other people using the app, my first concern was privacy. As much as families managing IBD are all in the same boat, every family is different. Not everything should be public. We wouldn't want anyone outside our family seeing what we post, so we assumed other parents would feel the same.
Every symptom, note, and photo is encrypted on the device before it leaves the phone. Not even the hosting provider can read it. See how that works →
You unlock the app with your face or fingerprint. That's it. No one picking up the phone can leaf through a child's symptom history.
What it is (and isn't)
CrohnOlogy is a shared family record. The point isn't just logging — it's seeing patterns over time, understanding what might be impacting the disease. And when appointment day comes, it's a record you can bring with you, so you don't have to rely on memory or a notebook you left at home.
It is not medical advice. It doesn't diagnose, treat, or replace your care team. It's a tool that helps you paint a picture of what's happening, so the people who can help have better information to work with. See the Terms of Service.
What's next
We're in early days. The app does what our family needs today, but there's more to come. Some things on the horizon:
- Medication tracking
- Mood and general wellbeing logging
- Richer analytics and trend-spotting
- Data export
We only have our experience
If you're using CrohnOlogy and have suggestions (features that would help your family, things that don't work the way you'd expect, anything), please get in touch. This project grows with the families who use it.
A hobby project, not a company
CrohnOlogy is a personal project. There's no team, no investors, no business model. It exists because our family needed it, and it's shared because your family might need it too.
- It's free. No ads, no subscriptions, no data selling. That won't change.
- It's maintained with care, but it's not a staffed product. Support is best-effort. Email and I'll do my best.
- The journey is still ahead of us. Max is doing well, and this tool grows as we do.