MS Awareness Week: Real-World Descriptions (and a Poem!) from Our MS Community

We kicked off MS Awareness Month by sharing some key facts we’ve learned from our MS community (26,000+ members and counting).  Now, we are digging a bit deeper in honor of MS Awareness Week.  You’ve already heard about common MS symptoms as well as frequent topics in our MS forum.  But what it is really like to… Continue reading MS Awareness Week: Real-World Descriptions (and a Poem!) from Our MS Community

Meet ALS “Treat Us Now” Steering Committee Member Tom Murphy

You may remember our interview with ALS advocate Debra Quinn from last fall.  Today, we’d like to introduce you to another ALS patient activist in our midst:  Tom Murphy, a PatientsLikeMe member since January 2011.  As part of the ALS Treat Us Now nonprofit group, Tom and several other ALS patients around the country have… Continue reading Meet ALS “Treat Us Now” Steering Committee Member Tom Murphy

Spotlighted Blogger: Interview with Lissa of “Psoriasis Girl’s Point of View”

Want to connect with and learn from psoriasis patients like you? Join PatientsLikeMe Now! (It’s free) Welcome to the sixth installment of our “Spotlighted Blogger” series.  So far, we’ve interviewed patient bloggers living with gastroparesis, type I diabetes, bipolar I disorder, Parkinson’s disease and ALS, and today we introduce Lissa, a PatientsLikeMe member who has lived… Continue reading Spotlighted Blogger: Interview with Lissa of “Psoriasis Girl’s Point of View”

What Do You Know About Multiple Sclerosis?

March is National MS Education and Awareness Month (NMEAM), an initiative of the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation (MSF) to raise awareness for this chronic neurological disease affecting the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. This year’s theme is “At Your Best with MS,” encouraging the more than 2.5 million people with MS worldwide to seek the… Continue reading What Do You Know About Multiple Sclerosis?

How Heart Attack Warning Signs Differ in Women

A heart attack is unmistakable, right?  Not exactly.  And especially not if you’re a woman. We kicked off February by recognizing National Wear Red Day and sharing a hilarious video created by actress Elizabeth Banks for American Heart Month.  In the short piece, a harried working mother begins having strange symptoms one morning, including tightness… Continue reading How Heart Attack Warning Signs Differ in Women

Behind Every Piece of Data Is a Patient

(This post has been repurposed from an article written by PatientsLikeMe’s Ben Heywood for eyeforpharma’s Patient’s Week 2011.) Real-world, patient-reported data is becoming more important to you, the patient, as well as everyone in healthcare. One source of that data is patient registries. According to the US Department of Health & Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research… Continue reading Behind Every Piece of Data Is a Patient

What Do You Know About Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)?

February is AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month, sponsored by Prevent Blindness America.  Affecting part of the back of the eye called the macula, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) can cause the center area of your vision to become blurry or wavy.  It can also create a blind spot right in the center of your vision. As the… Continue reading What Do You Know About Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)?

NFL Player Steve Gleason’s Inspiring ALS Story

Did you catch the pre-game show before Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVI?  If not, you missed a beautiful NBC piece about Steve Gleason, who spent seven seasons as a safety with the New Orleans Saints. Diagnosed with ALS a year ago, Gleason now walks with a cane, and his speech has been impacted.  The new father… Continue reading NFL Player Steve Gleason’s Inspiring ALS Story

The Personalized Medicine World Conference in Photos and Tweets

Last week, PatientsLikeMe Co-Founder Jamie Heywood had the honor of speaking at the Personalized Medicine World Conference (PMWC), a two-day event held at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley.  His presentation was entitled “Patient Driven Convergence of Clinical Discovery and Care.”  In recognition of the conference’s venue as well as the role that technology… Continue reading The Personalized Medicine World Conference in Photos and Tweets

Women: Protect Yourself Against Cervical Cancer

Each year in the US approximately 12,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and more than 4,000 lives are lost as a result. What makes this such a tragic statistic is the fact that cervical cancer can be prevented through vaccines and regular screenings in almost every case.  That’s the all-important message to spread during Cervical… Continue reading Women: Protect Yourself Against Cervical Cancer