Digital health · Chronic disease management
Aidy
A free mobile app and text line that helps people with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis log symptoms, diet, and biologic doses, then turns those logs into clinician-ready reports. It started life as an AI tool for federal grant paperwork and became a consumer health app about a year later.
Text Aidy to get started
There is no download link on Aidy’s homepage. Instead it says: “Text Aidy to get started in seconds. It’s free, private, and there’s nothing to install.” A separate native app exists too, listed on the App Store as Aidy: Manage Crohn’s & Colitis, but the company built the product to meet patients where they already are, in a text thread, not behind an app store download.
Once someone is in, the pitch is the same either way. Log symptoms with a few taps or a text. Snap a photo of a meal instead of typing it out. Set up a biologic schedule, Humira, Remicade, Entyvio, Skyrizi, Stelara, Omvoh, Tremfya, Cimzia, Simponi and Tysabri are all supported, and get reminders before each dose plus a post-dose check-in. The app calculates a Modified Harvey-Bradshaw Index for Crohn’s and an SCCAI score for ulcerative colitis automatically from the logs, the same indices a gastroenterologist would use, and produces a report a patient can bring to an appointment.
The gap between appointments
Inflammatory bowel disease is managed in a handful of visits a year, but it is lived every day. Aidy’s own writing on its Learning Center leans on that gap. In one post the company cites a trial in which patients using a real-time monitoring tool had a median flare duration of 18 days, against 77 days in a standard-care group, and attributes the difference to flares being caught and treated early instead of waiting for the next scheduled visit. That is a company-stated figure from a study Aidy summarizes rather than one this review independently verified; no peer-reviewed paper by Aidy itself turned up in a PubMed search.
The same posts are candid about limits. One notes that up to 54% of IBD patients have active inflammation while reporting no symptoms at all, meaning a symptom diary alone will miss real disease activity. The content reads less like marketing copy and more like a clinical newsletter, dense with citations, which fits a company whose commercial pitch to pharmaceutical Medical Affairs teams is built on data rigor.
From grant paperwork to gut health
Aidy did not start as a health company. It launched out of Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch as “AI-Assisted TurboTax for Federal Grants,” built by Max Williamson, Peter Crocker, and Gregory Miller. All three had worked adjacent to federal grantmaking, Williamson at the Rockefeller Foundation and as a foreign policy fellow in the U.S. Senate, Crocker on machine learning for biotech, and Miller as a program analyst at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The original product walked small businesses and nonprofits through Rural Energy for America Program grant applications, work the company said could otherwise cost $18,000 and 100 staff hours per grant.
By its own account, that phase involved what the company calls “pivot hell.” A friend with IBD told the founders there were not any decent apps to help people live with the disease, and the team, by then down to Williamson and Crocker as the active founders, decided to build one. Williamson studied computer science and policy at MIT and was named a Truman Scholar and a Rhodes Scholarship finalist. Crocker holds a BA and MEng from MIT in electrical engineering and computer science, specializing in graph neural networks and causal inference for health data. Aidy’s privacy policy, last updated May 11, 2025, is the earliest dated evidence found that the IBD product existed in its current form.
A free app with a business model behind it
Aidy does not charge users and says it does not run ads or sell data. Its FAQ explains the model plainly: “Aidy is free to use; we don’t have paid user subscriptions because we believe this service should be accessible to everyone. We work with health plans, employers, and researchers to generate revenue.” A separate page aimed at pharmaceutical Medical Affairs and health economics teams offers a fuller picture: Aidy pitches itself as a source of longitudinal, patient-reported data on why patients discontinue biologic therapy, collected through the same SMS check-ins patients use for their own tracking. The company describes this work as “non-promotional by design” and says it is built with “documented consent” and “IRB-ready protocols.” No named pharmaceutical client or study has been published.
The app also curates manufacturer support programs, for example insurance and specialty pharmacy navigation tied to AbbVie’s Skyrizi Complete hub, under a self-described “Medication access” feature. That reads as a directory of existing manufacturer copay programs, not a disclosed partnership with the drugmaker.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation listing | Aidy is one of the apps and digital health services on the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s “Helpful Apps” page, which the Foundation says it has “reviewed and vetted,” assessing “the business, addressing an unmet need of the IBD community, data utilization, and provision of care.” | Independent |
| FDA status | No FDA 510(k), PMA, or device record for Aidy was found. The App Store listing and privacy policy both describe the product as “a self-tracking and educational tool only” that does not provide medical, clinical, or diagnostic advice. | Not found |
| HIPAA | Aidy’s privacy policy makes no reference to HIPAA. It cites GDPR and CCPA/CPRA rights and describes “industry-standard administrative and technical safeguards, including encryption, least-privilege access controls, regular penetration testing, and continuous monitoring.” | Not found |
| Clinical indices | The App Store listing says the app calculates a Modified Harvey-Bradshaw Index for Crohn’s and an SCCAI score for ulcerative colitis automatically from user logs. | Company-stated |
| Peer-reviewed research | No PubMed record, registered clinical trial, NIH award, or NSF award tied to Aidy was found as of Sep 24, 2026. Cited flare-duration and treatment statistics on Aidy’s blog and LinkedIn page reference outside studies rather than Aidy’s own data. | Not found |
| Funding | Tracxn lists one seed round of $500,000 in 2024 from Y Combinator. No Form D or other SEC filing under the name Aidy appears in EDGAR’s company or full-text search. | Aggregator vs. no SEC record |
| Pharma data business | Aidy’s Medical Affairs & HEOR page pitches longitudinal, patient-reported data on biologic discontinuation to pharmaceutical companies, describing “publication-grade rigor” and “IRB-ready protocols.” No named client, study, or publication was found. | Company-stated |
Read plainly: the strongest outside validation Aidy has is a nonprofit patient organization putting it on a vetted resource list, plus App Store reviews from patients and a family physician who describes recommending it. Missing is anything from a regulator, a funder’s public filing, or a peer-reviewed study of Aidy’s own data, which matters here because the company’s stated revenue plan depends on selling that data’s rigor to health plans and drugmakers.
What to watch
- Whether Aidy ever files a Form D or discloses a priced round, which would settle how much of its reported $500,000 seed is on the books and whether it has raised since.
- A named pharmaceutical or health-plan client for the Medical Affairs data product, or a published study using Aidy-collected data.
- Whether the AI food and symptom features stay descriptive or move toward a diagnostic claim that would draw FDA attention.
- Growth in App Store reviews and any additional patient-organization endorsements beyond the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation listing.
In their words
“I’m building Aidy, a mobile app that helps people better manage chronic health conditions, starting with IBD.”
Max Williamson, co-founder and CEO, Y Combinator founder bio · Company profile
“My background is in machine learning, where I specialized in graph neural networks and causal inference for bio and health data.”
Peter Crocker, co-founder and CTO, Y Combinator founder bio · Company profile
“Go Max Williamson and team! So proud of you and missing you at The Rockefeller Foundation!”
Former Rockefeller Foundation colleague, comment on the 2024 Y Combinator launch post · Independent
“I am a family physician in a rural area and I often have patients with low resources and chronic upset stomach who have a hard time tracking their triggers. Tracking food intake is a challenge even with an experienced dietician, so Gut Hero has been a godsend for these folks.”
App Store reviewer, identified as a family physician · Independent
“This app has made it incredibly simple to track my day to day symptoms, find trigger foods, and keep track of when my meds are due. Also, it is helpful for giving concise information to a physician to direct treatment.”
App Store reviewer · Independent
“We do not sell your data, display advertising, or share information for ad targeting.”
Aidy Privacy Policy, last updated May 11, 2025 · Company-stated
Related companies
Sources
- CompanyAidy Y Combinator company profile
- CompanyAidy homepage
- CompanyAidy Privacy Policy
- CompanyAidy for Medical Affairs & HEOR
- CompanySkyrizi Complete insurance and specialty pharmacy navigation page
- CompanyAidy: Manage Crohn’s & Colitis, App Store listing
- IndependentApp Store ratings and reviews for Aidy
- IndependentAidy: The all-in-one app for living with Crohn’s or Colitis
- IndependentHelpful Apps and Digital Health Services, listing Aidy
- IndependentTransforming the Grant Landscape: The Aidy Advantage
- IndependentLaunch YC: Aidy, AI-Assisted TurboTax for Federal Grants, and comment thread
- IndependentAidy company page
- IndependentAidy funding rounds and investors
- Public recordSEC EDGAR company and full-text search for “Aidy”
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
