Check out the October issue of WIRED magazine! PatientsLikeMe makes “The Smart List: 12 Shocking Ideas That Will Change the World.” In an interview with Brendan Koerner (“Forget Medical Privacy“), Co-founder Jamie Heywood talks about how “the lack of openness [in medicine] is making us sicker” and how sharing individual health data can benefit you. What do you think?
Earlier this month, Jamie also gave a rapid fire presentation on the future of medicine at the 2009 Gov 2.0 Summit. He addresses how we can better answer this question for patients: “Given my status, what is the best outcome I can achieve and how do I get there?” Here’s how (with openness leading the way):
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Jamie,
I saw your video on TED / Youtube. I also lost my brother due to an illness. His was epilepsy. I am so excited that you created patientslikeme. I have dreamed of a website like this one, and here you have created it. What you have done will change lives, and change the world through better information. Information is everything!
How do you feel about alternative health? It’s an industry where there are real possibilities and real scams. A site like this could really sort through the claims and scams and help show which alternative health techniques actually work, and which ones can be safely ignored.
Should I encourage alternative health professionals to promote this site for their patients and clients? Would you like that kind of traffic? Or is this site primarily focusing on pharmaceuticals?
Either way, thank you for creating this website.
Kurt Othmer
Kurt,
I am sorry to hear about your brother and I thank you for reaching out. I think we like to believe we are building a holistic system – not about drugs or diet or alternative therapy but the whole. Our measures are better and worse at each kind of health (and we can always do better at all of them) but we do not have any bias about what works.
I think this is what the patients can tell us and each other.
-jamie