Partnering with patients is at the very core of what we do, but a new collaboration with longtime ALS member Steve Saling (SmoothS) is giving that a new spin — it was Steve’s idea and he’s been driving the project from day one.
Since his diagnosis in 2006, Steve has made it his mission to help other pALS live a better quality of life. He’s founded the ALS Residence Initiative, which has grown from the first fully-automated, vent-ready ALS Residence in Chelsea, Mass., to multiple residences across the country that offer pALS independent living alongside 24-hour care.
Steve sat down with us last week to share about his latest project: producing a series of educational short videos to help caregiving and medical staff better understand the unique care needs of pALS.
But what does this patient-conceived project mean for research? We caught up with our VP of Innovation, Paul Wicks, PhD., to chat more about this project from a research standpoint. Here’s what he had to say:
Working with members for research is in PatientsLikeMe’s DNA, but this collaboration with longtime ALS member Steve Saling (SmoothS) takes it to another level — the project was conceived and driven by Steve. What do you think about this unique partnership? What makes it different than other projects, and what are your expectations?
There is certainly a lot of buzz out there about being “patient centered” these days – there is a risk that it’s tokenism rather than truly empowering – which means giving up some degree of control to others. In our case we’ve offered Steve access to powerful survey tools and our highly engaged population so he can develop his research about the experiences of other patients like him to help shape the services he designs. That’s really the core of what we do here, bringing the patient voice to decision makers in healthcare, and the reason this is so powerful is that as an architect, as an advocate, as a leader in the space, we’re helping Steve to make better decisions about the unmet needs of his community. My hope is that by giving people an anonymous survey they can complete at their leisure from home or with the use of assistive technology that we might hear from people with ALS who don’t normally have a voice.
In its early stages, the survey was more geared towards pALS and cALS receiving and giving institutional care. Can you talk about the evolution of the project with Steve to include those not in a care setting like that, too?
We’ve been following Steve’s pioneering work in developing his ALS Residence Initiative for a long time, in fact I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him for a beer a couple of times and I even mentioned it in a TEDx talk as far back as 2010. As a researcher with 13 years experience in ALS I know that while residential care is the right fit for some people with ALS, others don’t have that option or couldn’t imagine being anywhere other than their homes. We also recognized that people have a mix of caregivers, both informal (e.g. spouses, children) and professional (e.g. home help, nurses) and that many patients have a blend of care from different sources throughout their journey. We also wanted to broaden the survey as much as possible so that we could hear from as many people as possible.
One of the goals is to learn from members to get more background context for a series of educational caregiver videos that Steve is producing and PatientsLikeMe is also sponsoring. What else do we hope to learn?
When you or a loved one is diagnosed with ALS, you get a lot of educational material about the disease. It’s full of statistics and medical jargon about neurons and genetics, but you don’t get much support about how to live with it, how to cope. That could be something as simple as little tips for coping with weakness to something as complex as how to choose the right wheelchair or how to safely transfer with a hoist. Neurologists and experts and professionals can advise and consult, but in most cases they haven’t been there day after day to assist with the basics of daily life that become so hard with ALS, so I’m hoping that with our help Steve can build a permanent resource that will be a great “how to” guide for practical (and sometimes even awkward or embarrassing) topics that people encounter every day.
Caregiver needs are as wide-ranging as the number of people living with a condition, but what do you think is unique about the needs of caregivers of pALS?
Fear of the unknown is a big one – although we’re seeing increasing awareness about ALS thanks to the Ice Bucket Challenge and movies likeThe Theory of Everything, most people don’t know what ALS is going to involve for them when their loved one is first diagnosed. Many people will want to tiptoe gently in the shallow end of knowing about it rather than diving in at the deep end – it can be hard enough coping with the issues in front of you without having to worry about problems that may or may not arise further down the line. Unlike something like cancer we also lack treatments in ALS, so it can feel like you’re just waiting for the next symptom rather than actively fighting it with drugs or surgery. Perhaps this is just bias, but ALS also tends to affect some of the strongest and most courageous people I’ve known and it can be hard for them to accept that they need help from others – they’ve often been successful professionals or highly active people and so admitting that they need help to walk or to get dressed doesn’t always come naturally to them.
Is anyone else doing research projects like this one that you know of?
Over the years I’ve seen a little bit of relatively small-scale qualitative research like this published in the main ALS Journal usually from nurses, physical therapists, or occupational therapists, but I’m pretty confident this is the first conducted by a patient!
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