NJ whiz kids launch app to help residents manage Crohn’s, colitis

Three teenagers are the brains and hands behind a new app that could make life easier for the millions of Americans living with inflammatory bowel diseases.

Following a year of development, the MyCrohnicles app is available for download on Apple and Google smartphones and tablets.

The target audience: anyone living with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.

It's the handiwork of siblings Udhirna Krishnamurthy, 17, a Robbinsville High School senior, and Svadrut, 13, an eighth-grader at Pond Road Middle School. Both have a passion for coding.

They were approached with the idea by their cousin Shravan Rajagopal, a 17-year-old in West Chester, Pennsylvania, who was diagnosed with Chron's at age seven. His father had already been coping with ulcerative colitis for years at that point.

"They made us write food diaries — it took a lot of time to do that each day," Shravan told New Jersey 101.5. "So we thought that this app would be a good idea to automate that process and make it easier to keep records of what we've been eating and how it affects our body."

Through the app, Udhirna said, users can "understand what foods and personal behaviors work best for them." And the data gathered through the app can be shared with one's physician during routine visits.

"In a short time, it builds a user's guide for healthier living," Svadrut said.

The app is currently ad-free. That could change as the app improves and becomes more popular, but the trio isn't in it for the money.

Any profit they make from the app would go to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation, the teens said.

"Our goal is to simply help others," Udhirna said.

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