This month marks the 3-year anniversary of our flagship ALS community. While there have been so many exciting milestones we’ve reached in that time, we’re always looking at ways to bring new insight to this disease. Today, we’re announcing the launch of our Genetics Search Engine for people with ALS. Imagine finding other patients just… Continue reading Announcing the PatientsLikeMe ALS Genetics Search Engine
Category: Research
A new gene for ALS: What sharing your genetics could mean for research
In today’s issue of the journal Science two papers describe the discovery of a new gene for ALS (you can read the abstracts here and here). Around 90% of ALS cases are sporadic, i.e. we don’t know what causes them, but for 5-10% of patients the disease runs in their family (known as familial ALS,… Continue reading A new gene for ALS: What sharing your genetics could mean for research
ALS Symposium 2008: New features for ALS patients
This blog post is the second in a series from our attendance at the 19th International Symposium on ALS/MND in Birmingham UK in November 2008. When PatientsLikeMe attended the previous ALS/MND Symposium in Toronto Canada in December 2007, I was given a platform presentation to show the assembled clinicians, scientists and researchers what we had… Continue reading ALS Symposium 2008: New features for ALS patients
ALS Symposium 2008: A history of ALS online
Back in November, Jamie Heywood and I attended the 19th International ALS/MND Symposium in Birmingham, UK. As part of an ongoing series of blog posts reporting from that conference, I have put together a narrated slideshow which is an abridged version of a platform presentation I was asked to give at the conference about the… Continue reading ALS Symposium 2008: A history of ALS online
Structuring and Presenting the Patients’ Perspective at AMIA
PatientsLikeMe members share health data on the site adding their own individual-level health experience to a repository of structured outcome data. The result? An unprecedented data set that informs medical conversation not only within the patient community but also with the larger scientific one. Earlier this fall, the venue for this conversation was the annual… Continue reading Structuring and Presenting the Patients’ Perspective at AMIA
World AIDS Day (12/1/08) – Embracing the Positive
World AIDS Day is a milestone in so many different ways. It has marked the persistence of HIV and its impact on our world, but we hope that we are approaching a turning point where World AIDS Day will come to mark progress. What this day marks, however, is that being HIV positive doesn’t mean… Continue reading World AIDS Day (12/1/08) – Embracing the Positive
National Family History Day
PatientsLikeMe believes in the benefits of openly sharing health information. That is why we are happy to spread the word about National Family History Day, which had its fifth anniversary on Thanksgiving 2008. As families gather this holiday weekend, National Family History Day encourages families to become familiar with the health history of previous generations. … Continue reading National Family History Day
PatientsLikeMe Report: MS Patients Still Positive for Tysabri Following July Announcement of PML Cases
PatientsLikeMe recently released a new PatientsLikeMeListen™ report: “Did the July 2008 PML announcement affect the Tysabri brand?” Among our findings, the report reveals that MS patients retained an overall positive perception of the Tysabri brand despite the July 2008 announcement of two additional PML cases. When we originally covered this topic back in August, the… Continue reading PatientsLikeMe Report: MS Patients Still Positive for Tysabri Following July Announcement of PML Cases
PatientsLikeMe honored with award of distinction at Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica – one of the foremost centers for art and technology – honored PatientsLikeMe at their annual festival with the Award of Distinction. The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most prestigious prizes in the fields of media, technology, animation, and interactive art. This year, there were a record number of submissions with… Continue reading PatientsLikeMe honored with award of distinction at Ars Electronica
How representative are PatientsLikeMe patients to the general population?
Mimi Yin over at The Common Data Project blog posed some interesting questions about data in our communities: Back in April, I wrote about the site PatientsLikeMe.com, which provides a wonderful new service that allows individual users to share the most intimate details of their medical conditions and treatments, which in turn creates a pool… Continue reading How representative are PatientsLikeMe patients to the general population?