Does It Work? Lithium and ALS

by James Heywood Update (March 7, 2008):  PatientsLikeMe ALS Lithium Research released. Does it work? On February 12th of this year, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (one of the leading science journals) published a paper entitled — Lithium Delays Progression of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. After 10 years researching ALS, I believe it is… Continue reading Does It Work? Lithium and ALS

Business Development in Health 2.0: Blazing the Trail to Profitability

        Much has been made about the potential for viable businesses in the health 2.0 movement. In short, these articles and blogs (among others) openly and appropriately question the long-term viability of the space: Are they right? That answer is unclear, but they are right to ask. In our spirit of openness… Continue reading Business Development in Health 2.0: Blazing the Trail to Profitability

PatientsLikeMe Recognized by Health 2.0 Founders

PatientsLikeMe is proud to be at the forefront of the Health 2.0 movement. What’s Health 2.0 you ask? It’s all about revolutionizing healthcare through new, web-based tools, search functionality and communities. As a result, patients are able to communicate and exchange information in ways they never could before. No wonder Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya,… Continue reading PatientsLikeMe Recognized by Health 2.0 Founders

The growth of social media in health care

According to a December 2007 iCrossing survey cited by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn in her Health Populi blog “34% of Americans turn to social media for health research.” Jane points to PatientsLikeMe and others as “proof of the reality of social media in health is alive and well and healing”, and observes that “increasing numbers of people… Continue reading The growth of social media in health care

To spit or not to spit (openness gets personal)

Over the past seven months of working at PatientsLikeMe, I’ve come to think that the idea of sharing medical and health information is completely normal. Since giving birth to my nearly 3 year old daughter, I have continued to be eternally grateful to other mothers who have willingly and openly shared their deeply personal experiences… Continue reading To spit or not to spit (openness gets personal)

Patients showcase PatientsLikeMe to their local support group

Our members are very enthusiastic about the value generated by sharing their information. So much so that recently two of our members decided to don their hard-earned PatientsLikeMe t-shirts and share their experiences using PatientsLikeMe with their local MS support group. They recruited several new members at the meeting and gave more information about PatientsLikeMe… Continue reading Patients showcase PatientsLikeMe to their local support group

The “We Have MS Together!” video

Learning from each other can be addictive, and even fun at times. One of our more prolific (and outspoken and creative) MS members, Keeping On, decided to celebrate her 1000th post with a musical salute to some of the most humorous posts and posters in our MS community. So she got together with another witty… Continue reading The “We Have MS Together!” video

Community Report: The composition and experience of the Multiple Sclerosis community

Six months after its public launch, the MS PatientsLikeMe community includes over 1 in 200 MS patients in the U.S. and the rate of growth continues to escalate. To mark the occasion and experiment with new community tools, we put together the first PatientsLikeMe community report. In this report, we begin to paint a portrait… Continue reading Community Report: The composition and experience of the Multiple Sclerosis community

Benjamin Heywood Interviewed by the Health Business Blog

Bringing the New Year in right, Benjamin Heywood, CEO of PatientsLikeMe, was interviewed by David E. Williams, publisher of the Health Business Blog (not to be confused with David S. Williams who works with PatientsLikeMe). In the interview, Ben discusses the future of the company, its ground-breaking Openness Philosophy, and the differentiation of PatientsLikeMe versus… Continue reading Benjamin Heywood Interviewed by the Health Business Blog

Happy Holidays! PatientsLikeMe Update: December 2007

As 2007 comes to a close, we want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. Thanks for being a part of the PatientsLikeMe family! In order to continue to create online homes for patients with life-changing conditions, we need to continue building a solid team. Therefore, we plan to expand our staff in… Continue reading Happy Holidays! PatientsLikeMe Update: December 2007