Parentalis, the first application created by a pediatrician to facilitate parenting

Having an answer from a pediatrician 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for all the problems or worries about your child when you are a parent, is a bit of a dream. Parentalis then makes it reality. “This is the first application created by a pediatrician for parents,” says Aymène Kebaili, 30, pediatrician in Nice.

The idea, he had it in 2021, while working in pediatric intensive care and thinking with other colleagues that many dramatic situations could have been avoided. “When I discussed it around me with friends, they told me that they would have had the same reflexes as these parents, he continues. That’s when I said to myself that something had to be done because everything is not obvious and it is difficult to think or remember everything”.

With three friends, they embark on the design of an application. “In the team, there are two young parents. We are also inspired by their experience and their struggles when they had their child. Everyone had their say. Between the advice of friends, family, the fact that we forgot what the doctor had said, then now, everything circulating on the Internet, we have to sort it out, ”explains the pediatrician.

A “modern” tool

The Parentalis application presents itself as a “modern tool, suitable for young parents, that they can always have at their fingertips with an answer to their questions at their fingertips. It is also for this reason that, when you arrive on the home page, you fall directly on a search bar, ”says Aymène Kebaili.

The rest of the content is divided into two categories: “symptoms” sheets, distinguished by colors to know if it is “very serious” or “to be watched” and by age of the children “under three months” or “over three months”, and “advice” sheets, in particular on foods to avoid at a certain age or even newborn furniture to obtain (or not). “These are all the daily questions with clear, pragmatic and precise elements”, insists the doctor. It refers to the latest recommendations from health authorities and sources each article.

The Niçois nevertheless stresses that the application is not intended to dematerialize the consultation which remains for him, “essential”. “We simply want to train and inform parents as well as possible so that they feel comfortable in their parenting and reassured thanks to the maximum knowledge that they will be able to acquire thanks to the application”.

Over 3,000 downloads in three days

And knowledge has a cost. The subscription to have access to all the sheets amounts to 5 euros per month. “To make the application work, we needed to put a price. Especially since we decided not to have advertisements displayed on the screen so as not to blur the message and to protect the personal data of our users. We only ask for an email address. One of the team members is a lawyer specializing in personal data law. And then, we do all that on our free time. To develop the application, we cannot rely on our personal funds. »

In three days, Parentalis had a stunning and “unexpected” success, in particular two live videos posted on Facebook where the pediatrician responded to messages, with more than 3,000 downloads, 10% of which were paid subscriptions. “It also shows that there is a real interest, a real need and that we are responding to a real demand,” concludes Aymène Kebaili.

The rest of the project would then be to really improve the application in terms of design and all the features, allow monitoring and have people take care of it full time. The co-founder assures that, “for the proper functioning of Parentalis”, he will in any case remain a pediatrician.