Florence Iwegbue, the Nigerian woman who created an app for her autistic son

Florence Iwegbue is a Nigerian lawyer and tech entrepreneur. She is the mother of an autistic boy. With her husband, she created Livewello in 2012, an app that organizes the health data of patients with autism and helps sharing easily information with care providers and relatives. 

Necessity is the mother of invention. In 2011, Florence Iwegbue’s 3 years old son was diagnosed with autism. This life-changing situation put the family in a stressful situation, especially that the couple’s first two daughters did not suffer from autistic disorder. As the family was determined to provide the best care to their son Dilibe, his cares started to be overwhelming especially for the mother. The little boy was under the care of various specialists, from neurologists to speech therapists, including acupuncturists…He had to see regularly a dozen health specialists and take 29 drugs. At each medical visit, the mother had to carry a suitcase of folders detailing his cares. As time went by, she started to become depressed and even withdrew from her family. “Because I was responsible for my son’s care, I was constantly drowned in his care. I was really, really depressed,”she tells Danishisland. com

It was at that time that her husband, Kwame Iwegbue, a physician and self-taught software developer, showed her iBiomed, a prototype application he had been working on for three months. “I started building the app because I was sad to see my wife sad. I wanted to cheer her up. I also told myself that I wasn’t doing enough. It’s something I could do to ease her burden, ”her husband told Bellanaija.com

For a better management of autism and chronic diseases

Florence was very touched by her husband’s initiative. After using the program, she showed him how to improve it, end the bugs and make it more useful. To develop Livewello, Florence and her husband collaborated with their son’s health providers, their medical coaches and their family back in Nigeria to manage their son’s health collectively. “When we are asked questions about our son, we can give clearer answers. This has improved the quality of his care and made our life easier, ”she told the same media.

Livewello issues alerts to take medication, to make an appointment with a doctor. It also has a system for monitoring drug supplies …Today, Florence is helping other patients manage their health through the program, as it not only tracks autism, but a variety of chronic diseases as well. The program is available for free, but there are also paid services. It is accessible at:https://livewello.com/press