Photo by Hoi An and Da Nang Photographer on Unsplash
Tears were streaming down my face as I waited for my brother to come back from the hospital after getting metal rods placed in his back to prevent it from curling because of his condition, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. We had done everything we could to prepare for the big life change –shampooing the carpets, and wiping clean every visible surface of the living room and kitchen to make sure there were no chances of infection.
It was a frightening moment, with many unknowns about what the future of our lives held as a family. I was in elementary school at the time, and felt overwhelmed learning the new routines that came with taking care of my brother after surgery.
Years later, I thought those days were behind me. Then my dad needed a kidney transplant, and suddenly I was back in the same overwhelmed place – only this time, I was the adult responsible for keeping everything straight. When he came home after surgery, it really struck me, there were no existing tools to manage all his appointments, medications, tasks, or track his recovery. I was juggling a binder for his meds, trying to remember which specialist said what, coordinating with my mom, who had just recently received her own cancer diagnosis – all while working full-time.
I kept thinking: Why isn’t there any tool built for this?
That’s when I started building CoordiCare, a mobile app that helps family caregivers such as myself to more efficiently manage care for their loved ones. Since then, our team has interviewed over 35 caregivers and patients and surveyed 45 more. Every conversation confirmed what I suspected: we’re all piecing together makeshift systems because nothing is built for us.
CoordiCare is designed to help families keep appointments, therapies, medications, and caregiving responsibilities organized and shared across parents, siblings, and other caregivers — especially when care is long-term and spread across multiple people.
Our team is about to start our invite-only beta testing in the next month. We are hoping to connect with those who might be interested in early access and the opportunity to help shape the tool through feedback.
If this sounds familiar – if you’ve ever felt the same overwhelm I felt – we’d love to have you join our beta and help us build something that actually works for family caregivers.