PatientsLikeMe

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PatientsLikeMe

Profile of a patient with ALS

PatientsLikeMe is a social networking health site that enables its members to share treatment and symptom information in order to track and to learn from real-world outcomes. PatientsLikeMe currently has communities for ALS, MS, Parkinson's Disease, HIV, and mood disorders, as well as the rare conditions Progressive supranuclear palsy, Multiple system atrophy, and Devic's disease (neuromyelitis optica). PatientsLikeMe enables patients who suffer from these life-altering diseases to converse with one another, allowing them to empathise with each other and allowing them to learn any techniques or medication other sufferers are trying in order to improve their health. The site was initially launched in 2005 when brothers James Heywood and Benjamin Heywood, whose brother Stephen Heywood was diagnosed with ALS in 1998, recognized the need for community-based information sharing around specific diseases.

Physicians and researchers can also access the social networking health site, enabling them to find out what treatments its patients have tried and how successful the outcome of the treatments were. The site has also introduced a number of projects that analyze clinical information given by the patients. Users of the site use the site for free. However the site is still a commercial site as it aims to sell its user?s data to drug and medical companies. The number of users is increasing. At May 2008, there were more than 5000 users with multiple sclerosis, 2000 users with mood disorders, 2000 users with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, 700 users with HIV and 1600 users of the site with Parkinson?s disease.

In the time since, the company has expanded to 5 disease categories, with future plans to expand to many more. The company was named as one of the "15 Companies that Will Change the World" by Business 2.0 and CNN Money^[1]. It was also featured in a March, 2008 New York Time Magazine article entitled "Practicing Patients."^[2]