JEDDAH: The founders of an award-winning Saudi app, aimed at revolutionizing the provision of care and educational services for people with special needs, are hoping to take the world by storm.Ynmo (@ynmodata), which means “to grow” in Arabic, is the first Arabic-English digital solution of its kind, allowing service providers such as schools, centers, and clinics to design and monitor individualized treatment plans.Dr. Fahad Al-Nemary, co-founder of Ynmo, said that although the number of children with disabilities was increasing, there was a regional and global shortage of qualified medical experts to deal with them.So, Al-Nemary and his twin brother Faisal, who also goes by the title doctor, decided to team up with a group of professionals to establish the digital tool. “Our team members have the experience of working in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region and the United States,” he told Arab News.The 35-year-old brothers have spent 15 years providing special education and behavior therapy services in Saudi Arabia and the US and spotted a technology gap in the market after witnessing the “challenges faced by clinicians when designing and monitoring their clients’ plans.”The siblings combined their clinical and research experience in developmental disabilities (including autism) with the specialties of two other professionals to launch the app. Dr. Abdullah Murad, 36, has worked for more than 10 years on large, government-led mobile-health technology projects, and Shabbab Al-Ghamdi, 40, is a seasoned sales and marketing leader, with multinational experience.“Our office is in Wadi Makkah techno valley, and our team is made up of about 10 people, most of them females,” said Al-Nemary.The app was officially launched in November 2017 to enhance communication and collaboration between an organization’s team members while also creating a relationship of trust with families. Al-Nemary said it helped users to design, monitor, archive, and share lessons and therapeutic plans, and professionals to swap daily notes and updates of a child’s progress with their family.“Ynmo was developed to help clinicians to better support their clients with disabilities and support them and their families beyond the therapy sessions,” he said.The app aims to give therapists and teachers the time to discuss and improve strategies with colleagues, enhance client-student performance, and give individuals the care they deserve.“Designing treatment plans and lessons using paper and pencil or traditional technology methods (Word documents, Excel files, etc.) take time and effort and makes it hard to share them with multidisciplinary teams and family members,” added Al-Nemary.Ynmo programs are offered in basic, professional, and excellence packages, but Al-Nemary noted that there were still cultural and mindset challenges to overcome about SaaS (Software as a Service) products in the MENA region.“We aim to revolutionize the way children with disabilities receive care and make high-quality rehabilitation and educational services accessible for the underserved in under-resourced locations worldwide,” he said. “We work with great partners that locally and globally will give us a boost on our competitors to make our services accessible to clients around the world.”He added that the Ynmo mission was to connect the developed world to the developing world, and the expert to the novice.
