SaleemSaleem's story: from a family notebook to a health app for my parents
How paper, Excel and Notion led us to build Saleem: an Arabic app that helps my father manage his health and helps me stay reassured about my parents, with their consent.
Saleem began with a simple question: how could I make health tracking easier for my father, rather than adding another task to his day?
My parents wrote blood-sugar and blood-pressure readings by hand in a small notebook. Beside it were lab reports from different laboratories, medicine instructions and appointments, with important details easily scattered between them. When a doctor's appointment came around, the familiar search began: where was last week's reading? Was this measurement before or after a meal? Which sheet had the latest result?
We first tried to organise everything ourselves. We moved the numbers into Excel, then tried Notion and other tools and approaches. They were useful tools, but they did not solve our problem. They still needed setup, tables, typing and someone to maintain the system. They helped me collect the information, but they did not make tracking easier for my parents.
We also tried existing health apps. Many were not designed for someone who reads Arabic or wants to save one number quickly: English interfaces, small text, crowded buttons and too many questions before a single reading could be saved. Some came too close to interpreting a person's condition with more confidence than they should.
That was when I realised we did not need a better spreadsheet. We needed a different experience from the ground up.
I wanted my father to be able to record his readings, follow his medicines and prepare his report by himself. I wanted those tools to help him care for my mother too. At the same time, I wanted to know how they were doing and understand the picture as it changed, with their consent, without turning care into surveillance or taking decisions away from them.
That became the idea behind Saleem: my parents deserve a health app in Arabic, one that helps them stay independent and brings the family closer when help is needed.
Three decisions from day one
Arabic, right to left, on every screen. Not a translation added later, and not a foreign interface with Arabic words on top. Arabic digits are accepted, the words are simple, and one question rules every screen: does a person of any age understand it at first glance?
Older adults first, comfortable for everyone. Large text is on from the start, with wide buttons, clear contrast and few steps. We reviewed the experience with my parents and other relatives of different ages and levels of technical confidence, learning from every place where they paused or needed an explanation. The goal is an interface that works for older adults without feeling unfamiliar to the rest of the family. If the children liked the app but the parent could not use it alone, it had not solved the problem it was built for.
Tracking, never diagnosis. Saleem places readings against general ranges and describes them in one word: low, normal, needs attention or high. It stops there. A doctor interprets the situation and decides on treatment; Saleem's job is to help you arrive with organised numbers and clearer context.
From a family need to a useful platform
We began with blood sugar and blood pressure, but stored numbers are not the goal. They need to be useful when the family or doctor needs them. That led to the doctor report: one organised page that can be printed or shared through a time-limited link, instead of searching through notebooks, photos and messages.
Then came lab results, because every laboratory lays out its reports differently, and medicines, because knowing what was taken and what remains is part of everyday tracking.
Family access needed greater care. Reassurance should never mean opening a parent's record without their knowledge. In Saleem, the parent accepts the invitation, chooses view-only or view-and-add access, and can withdraw it at any time. For someone who does not use a phone, a child can manage a separate record through a clear agreement with them.
We later added an AI assistant as an option, never a requirement. Someone who uses Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini can connect it with a key they control, choose its permissions and disconnect it whenever they wish. They can ask about the direction of their readings or ask it to record a reading after confirmation. My father uses this approach today.
Why "Saleem"?
Because it is a word every Arabic-speaking home understands, carrying what we wish for the people we love: health and safety. It is also one word that is easy to read and remember on a phone screen.
Where next?
Saleem works today on phones and computers, with an app on Google Play. It is still built by the same rule: give my father clearer tools to care for himself, and help our family stay close when support is needed.
If your parents' readings are scattered across a notebook, printouts and messages, begin together with one step: put the first reading in one clear place. Read the Saleem guide, or create your account and begin with your own record or one for someone you care about.