Attending Partnering with Patients…as a Patient

Last Friday we heard from PatientsLikeMe Head of Community Liz Morgan about her experiences at the Institute of Medicine’s Partnering with Patients workshop.  Today we hear from multiple sclerosis (MS) patient Laura Phillips, a PatientsLikeMe member who spoke at the event.  As a speaker at the workshop, Sally Okun, PatientsLikeMe’s Health Data Integrity & Patient Safety Director,… Continue reading Attending Partnering with Patients…as a Patient

How Privacy Impacts Personalized Medicine

“We are standing on the edge of a new information age, and this new information age is going to clash with our existing understanding of concepts such as privacy and how we think about healthcare data and what should be done with it.” – Jamie Heywood PatientsLikeMe Chairman Jamie Heywood recently traveled to Zurich, Switzerland,… Continue reading How Privacy Impacts Personalized Medicine

PatientsLikeMe® Poll Reveals Patients Share Health Data Online Prefer to Keep Quiet With Doctors, Employers

Patients Unveil Top Reasons Not to Share Health Information CAMBRIDGE, MA–(Marketwire – April 13, 2011) – According to a new PatientsLikeMe® Poll, almost one in three (29%) patients have withheld certain health information from their doctor. Of the 4,364 poll respondents, all of whom are members of PatientsLikeMe’s online health data-sharing community (www.patientslikeme.com), nearly half (47%)… Continue reading PatientsLikeMe® Poll Reveals Patients Share Health Data Online Prefer to Keep Quiet With Doctors, Employers

Patient Choices: How Open Are You Now?

At PatientsLikeMe, we have a Privacy Policy that explains what we do with the health data that patients like you share.  But as many of you know, we also have an Openness Philosophy, which outlines what we believe are the substantial benefits of being open versus private about your condition.  Here’s an excerpt: “Currently, most… Continue reading Patient Choices: How Open Are You Now?

Patient Choices: The Shape of Sharing

In these days of Facebook and Twitter, the media is abuzz with news of “over sharing” of sensitive, personal or trivial information – everything from your current location to what you were up to over the weekend.  Members on our site may choose to share some of this, but what about some of the less… Continue reading Patient Choices: The Shape of Sharing

What Data Do We Sell? A Continued Discussion about “Data Scraping”

In response to the Wall Street Journal article published last week, we’ve had a lot of great discussions about the role of honesty and transparency. Transparency is about you – members of the PatientsLikeMe community – knowing how we make money and what we do with the data you’ve entrusted to each other and PatientsLikeMe.… Continue reading What Data Do We Sell? A Continued Discussion about “Data Scraping”

PatientsLikeMe in Wall Street Journal: Transparency, Openness and Privacy (cont’d)

Journalist Julia Angwin of the Wall Street Journal just published an article describing how a major media monitoring company, Nielsen BuzzMetrics,  scraped our forum last Spring.  (See my previous blog post on the incident – “Transparency, Openness and Privacy”) Julia’s piece includes details regarding how this incident happened, how we (and you) responded and more. … Continue reading PatientsLikeMe in Wall Street Journal: Transparency, Openness and Privacy (cont’d)

A Year in Review: PatientsLikeMe in 2009

As 2009 comes to an end, we want to take this opportunity to thank all of our members, partners and general fans for another great year.   Here’s a recap of some of the exciting happenings at PatientsLikeMe these past 12 months.  Wishing you all a Happy New Year! Community Milestones This year, the 15+ disease… Continue reading A Year in Review: PatientsLikeMe in 2009

Sharing, Openness…and Privacy?

Every so often, we sit down to try and make our business objectives clearer to our patient communities.  Why?  Well, we can’t have a business without you and our communities can’t exist to help patients without a business. This often results in our Privacy Policy and User Agreement being updated to help clarify our goals… Continue reading Sharing, Openness…and Privacy?

Sharing Is A Right As Well

We do not live our lives alone. We live our lives in collaboration with others. We communicate our needs and our goals, and together we work to achieve them. This is exceptionally true for families and individuals dealing with illness. Whether you’re dealing with depression, or pain, or perhaps the fear and stigma of HIV,… Continue reading Sharing Is A Right As Well