The Challenge
Existing health and nutrition apps focus on calorie counting — not health intelligence. Families with different dietary needs have no platform that adapts to each member individually while keeping everyone coordinated.
- No platform supports multiple dietary approaches within a single household
- Current tools lack educational depth — they track numbers without teaching the science
- Health data stays siloed — no interoperability between patients and providers
- SNAP/EBT recipients have no free, evidence-based meal planning tools
What I Built
- Multi-member architecture — individualized settings within a unified household
- Leif AI explorer engine — proprietary LLM fine-tuned on nutrition science with automatic complexity routing
- Integrated LMS — structured education built with instructional design methodology
- Four proprietary engines — Correlation, P:E Ratio, Ingredient Chemistry, Recipe Conversion
- Tiered SaaS model — free to premium with SNAP/EBT full access at every tier
- Behavior-first gamification — celebrating consistency over perfection
AI Development Workflow
Systematic, context-managed software development using parallel AI agents:
Leif — AI Explorer Engine
Fortael’s proprietary AI engine deciphers health data by finding hidden patterns in nutrition science.
- Built on open-source models, fine-tuned on proprietary nutrition science database
- RAG-augmented with USDA, peer-reviewed research, and dietary guidelines
- Automatic complexity routing — instant lookups to deep pattern discovery
- Every response grounded in cited sources with transparent reasoning
Clinical Compliance & Interoperability
Three Audiences
- Individuals & Families — personalized meal planning, health tracking, cooking courses, SNAP/EBT full access
- Health Plans — 12 chronic condition mappings, 5 HEDIS Star Measures, 3 partnership models
- Government & CMS — MAHA alignment, Kill the Clipboard FHIR flows, D&O Prevention capability
Science & Evidence
- 140+ year evidence timeline from 1797 through modern RCTs
- 30+ publications backing the research foundation
- 8 institutional research foundations with canonical researchers
- Active clinical trials at Harvard, Stanford, and Edinburgh
NourishIQ includes a built-in Learning Management System designed using instructional design methodology — progressive learning pathways and competency-based content delivery. This directly maps to my Master’s coursework at UCF — EME 6613 (Instructional Systems Design) and EME 6507 (Multimedia for Education & Training). I’m not just studying instructional design. I’m building one.
I don’t just recommend AI adoption — I’ve lived it. I direct AI agents to build production-grade applications, which means I can design realistic adoption strategies because I understand the actual capabilities and limitations firsthand. “Technology adoption isn’t a slide deck problem — it’s a build problem.”
Skills Demonstrated
Key Takeaway
I’ve spent 25 years building things — trade schools, software systems, training programs, marketing campaigns, operational workflows. Fortael and NourishIQ represent the full synthesis: identify a gap, learn the domain, build the solution, and architect it for scale across consumers, enterprise, and government. AI-augmented development didn’t change what I do. It accelerated how fast I can do it.