Many PatientsLikeMe members talk openly about the reasons why they donate their health data and why they believe patient-centered healthcare means better healthcare for all. And just a week from now, two of them will be sharing their stories with everyone in a live webinar.
On Tuesday, January 20th, at 2:00pm EST, the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) is hosting their first “Patient Empowerment Webinar,” an online event focusing on the importance of patient engagement in their own healthcare and in health policy. Two PatientsLikeMe members, Ms. Laura Roix and Ms. Letitia Brown-James, will be participating in the discussion, and their experiences will be a part of the webinar. Here’s a little bit about Laura and Letitia, and more ways they’re already empowering others:
Laura is a member of the idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) community on PatientsLikeMe, and she recently traveled to Maryland to speak at the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Patient-Focused Drug Development Public Meeting on IPF. Laura went with our very own Sally Okun RN, VP of Advocacy, Policy and Patient Safety and spoke about her journey and what it’s like to live with IPF. (She recapped her experiences in an October blog interview.) But that’s not all Laura shares – she’s a 3-star member on PatientsLikeMe, which means she is a super health data donor and always keeps her information up to date so others can learn from her.
Letitia has been living with epilepsy since she was little, but after connecting with the PatientsLikeMe epilepsy community she learned about new treatment options available to her, like surgery. She shared about her experiences in a video, and after receiving her surgery, she’s been living seizure-free for years. Letitia is also a part of the first-ever PatientsLikeMe Team of Advisors, a patient-only panel that gives feedback on research initiatives and creates new standards to help all researchers understand how to better engage patients.
The PIPC webinar is open to everyone, so if you’d like to join, please RSVP to the event coordinator via email. Hope to see you there!
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