Individuals who suffer from Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Crohn’s Disease and a variety of other gastrointestinal ailments are often faced with the need to maintain daily bowel logs. Consistent logs help physicians track and monitor a patient’s progress and adjust medication as needed; insufficient data or sporadic logs, however, are often not helpful for monitoring long-term trends.

With this in mind, patients find it burdensome and difficult to remain on track with this daily regimen.

Enter technology…

A new iPhone application, “GI Monitor,” was developed by Brett Shamosh, CEO and founder of WellApps, Inc. For nearly two decades, Shamosh has suffered from IBD, and understands firsthand both the importance and burden of monitoring his daily BMs. In an effort to ease this task, a patient can download this application to their iPhone to monitor bowel movements and other related symptoms. In one organized, simple format, patients can log their individual data digitally, including prescription information.

The iPhone and other mobile devices make sense. Rarely do you leave home without your phone or PDA device; but how often do you want to carry your dietary journal? Shamosh says this was his reason for developing the application.

In the future, Shamosh indicates he would like to track symptoms of all users, and use these results for research benefits. The implications for monitoring trends are promising. As for advances in future releases, since there has been so much interest in not only BM logs but dietary logs, the next release will allow users to input and track dietary intake.

If you currently suffer from a GI ailment, you can download the application for $4.99 at the iTunes Store. The application will also be released in a format compatible with Blackberrys in the near future.