Patients share experience, keep track of medical record on mobile app

AMMAN — An interactive online platform allows patients and their families to receive support and share their experience with other patients to better cope with their health condition.

"We believe that sharing hard times and all related feelings and experiences helps the patients and their families to accommodate and get over these conditions," said Sondos Samara, founder of SanadyMe, who stressed the importance of building "disease-specific support groups" to help patients, especially those suffering from chronic diseases, to feel "less alone".

"By building this Arabic language specialised platform, we want to give patients a place to get psychological support by their peers, while keeping their privacy and identities protected," Samara continued.

On SanadyMe, which exists as a website and a mobile app, patients are provided with an array of interactive services to help them follow up with the development of their disease.

The blog and discussions sections allow them to share advice and feedback on the drugs they are receiving, the treatments they are undergoing, and the personal impact of the disease on themselves and their families.

Among the topics discussed on the website, posts about fibromyalgia — a disorder characterised by widespread musculo-skeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues — appear alongside advices on the best aliments to eat to help cure certain diseases.

Through a personalised patient profile, users can upload data about their day-to-day condition in order to evaluate and follow up on their psychological or clinical state, according to the SanadyMe website. 

"Patients are encouraged to print these profiles and show them to their doctor as we do not aim to replace the doctors or health specialists, but rather to work as a supporter of their work," Samara stressed.

The website, which also offers collective and anonymous analysis on various conditions, brings together doctors, patients, care providers and researchers who exchange scientifically based information to provide an overview of the patients' health.

"By providing this service in Arabic [and English], we seek to provide patient support in the best clinical way and offer patients in the Arab world a constant follow up," Samara noted.

The founder, who has worked as a hospital pharmacist at the King Hussein Cancer Centre and the Jordan Hospital, voiced his hope to create a database for Arab patients which will be available to patients, pharmaceutical companies and partners, to best serve the interests of the patients. 

The initiative won the Applied Scientific Research Fund's Women in Innovation competition in 2016, according to the Applied Scientific Research Fund.