
Healthy Labs
A patient-to-patient information sharing platform for individuals with crohn's disease and colitis.
Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
---|---|---|---|
investor | €0.0 | round | |
investor | €0.0 | round | |
investor | €0.0 | round | |
investor | €0.0 | round | |
N/A | Acquisition | ||
Total Funding | 000k |
Related Content
Healthy Labs, the entity behind Crohnology, was established to address the information gap for patients with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).
The company was founded in 2011 by Sean Ahrens, Will Cole, and Sarah Branon. Ahrens' personal journey with Crohn's disease, which he was diagnosed with at age 12, was the primary catalyst for the company's creation. His experiences navigating the healthcare system, experimenting with various treatments, and realizing the value of shared patient knowledge inspired him to build a platform to connect patients globally. A software developer and a graduate of UC Berkeley in Computer Science and Business, Ahrens leveraged his technical skills to engineer a solution for a problem he understood intimately.
Crohnology operates as a patient-centered social health network specifically for individuals with Crohn's & Colitis. The platform allows users to track their health and symptoms over time, share their experiences with different treatments, diets, and alternative therapies, and connect with other patients. By entering information through the website or mobile app, users contribute to a collective database of patient-generated data. This model turns patients into citizen scientists, creating a resource that allows for the comparison of treatment efficacy based on real-world experiences. The service facilitates peer-to-peer support and information exchange, aiming to provide insights that are often not available through traditional medical channels. The platform has fostered research collaborations with institutions like the University of North Carolina, the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, and pharmaceutical companies.
The business participated in the Y Combinator accelerator program in the summer of 2012 and also received seed funding from Rock Health in November 2011. Initially focused on Crohn's and Colitis, the founders expressed intentions to potentially expand the platform to support patients with other autoimmune or chronic conditions. According to Y Combinator's directory, the company is currently listed as inactive.
Keywords:Crohn's disease, Ulcerative Colitis, IBD, patient network, health tracking, peer-to-peer health, patient-reported outcomes, treatment comparison, symptom tracker, social health network, patient community, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic illness support, digital health, citizen science, Sean Ahrens, Y Combinator, Rock Health, patient data, alternative therapies