The Value of Openness: The PatientsLikeMe Blog

Ladies, we know your lives get busy.  So why not pull out your calendar or smartphone right now and see if you’re due for a visit to your health care providers?  You’ll be doing your part for National Women’s Checkup Day (observed today, Monday, May 14th), an annual event that’s part of National Women’s Health Week.

Checkup Day encourages women to get regular checkups that are vital to the early detection of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, mental illnesses, sexually transmitted infections and other conditions.  The reason is simple.  Women often serve as the caregivers for their partners, children and parents. As a result, their own well-being can be secondary at times.  The theme of National Women’s Health Week 2012 – “It’s Your Time” – speaks to the fact that women need to prioritize their own health as well.

Not sure what preventative screenings are recommended for you?  Check out this handy chart organized by age group.  Then take the Checkup Day pledge along with women around the country to get at least one recommended screening during May. If you’re concerned about cost, you should know that all recommended preventative screenings – such as mammograms, colon cancer screenings, Pap screenings and well-woman visits – are now covered by your insurance plan with no out-of-pocket costs.

But scheduling an appointment may just be the first step.  If you’re looking to get healthy in 2012, why not do it with the help of a community?  The 2012 WOMAN Challenge offers an online platform for tracking your nutrition goals and daily activity.  The challenge is to follow through with planned nutrition changes and be active 30 minutes a day, at least five days a week, for six out of eight weeks.  Register here to get started.

If you’re a woman living with a health condition, you can also find a community of women right here at PatientsLikeMe.  We have 70,995 female members who are sharing how they are managing more than 1,000 different conditions, including fibromyalgia, endometriosis, menopause, infertility and postpartum depression.  Take control of your condition with the help of women just like you today.

How do you define a disruptive hero?  Here is Hacking Work’s three-pronged filter:

• Disruptive because they are proving conventional wisdom wrong.
• Heroes because they are changing the rules of the game, for the better.
• Great because they helped to change us all for the better.

Given these demanding criteria, we are pleased to announce that Hacking Work has recognized PatientsLikeMe Co-Founder and Chairman Jamie Heywood for disrupting the accepted rules of the medical world.  How did his upbringing encourage him to ask questions?  Why does he believe it’s possible to both challenge and respect the healthcare system at the same time?

Find out that and much more in this thought-provoking interview:

Earlier this month, we told you about a new study showing that ALS patients reporting their health status over the Internet (using a rating scale known as the ALSFRS-R) is just as reliable as a trained nurse rating the patient’s score.   Now, we’d like to share our interview with lead study author Dr. Thomas Meyer, a neurologist at Charité University Hospital in Berlin, Germany.  What role did PatientsLikeMe play in this research?  And what are the study’s implications for the future of clinical trials?  Find out that and more in our interview with Dr. Meyer below.

1.  When did you become interested in patient-reported outcomes?

In 2005, we first used tablet PCs in our outpatient department to capture patient-reported outcomes (PROs). To us neurologists, PROs play a crucial role. Many neurological conditions can be captured by means of PROs only – I am thinking of pain in neuropathies, spasticity in multiple sclerosis (MS), the subjective perception of movement ability in Parkinson’s syndrome and dyspnoea (breathing difficulty) in neuromuscular conditions, including ALS. Given this fact, we neurologists have always listened to our patients a little more carefully so that we can do a good job. Therefore, the systematic capturing of PROs is a natural process to us, and we are most happy to be able to support any advancement and positive development thereof.

2.  Your study showed remarkable agreement between the two ALSFRS-R reporting methods.  Were you surprised that they were so similar?

You are absolutely correct. Correlation here looks like a textbook example of medical statistics. We were indeed very surprised to find that the data were so unequivocal.  Notwithstanding, our previous experience with the offline electronic capturing of ALSFRS-R had taught us that the data captured in a personal interview are very close to those captured in computer-based self-assessments.

Then we took the next step and progressed from offline to online assessment. Other work groups had already shown good correlation between the face-to-face capturing of the score on the one hand, and data capturing over the phone on the other. That was very useful upfront information for us. Insofar, the success of our study didn’t come as a complete surprise to us.

3.  How did Dr. Paul Wicks, PatientsLikeMe’s Director of Research & Development, contribute to this research project?

Our great interest in the issue of PROs in ALS goes back a long time. Nevertheless, we were very much aware of the fact that PatientsLikeMe is by far the most experienced organization with regard to PROs worldwide and also the one that identifies with this topic most. So, a small group of four of us flew from Berlin to Boston to introduce our clinical trial to PatientsLikeMe and to learn from their experience. Once we had concluded the study, we flew to Boston once again to see Paul and to prepare the paper. We profited immensely from Paul’s input, and he gave the manuscript a superordinate perspective.

So it is for a good reason that he is listed as co-author of this publication. Overall, this scientific research project was a collaboration between the Charité University Hospital and PatientsLikeMe. I believe it is also an important, gratifying and affirming experience for PatientsLikeMe to see that in terms of methodology the online capturing of PROs is at least equal to an interview conducted face-to-face. I can even imagine situations where the online mode of capturing PROs is actually better than a personal interview, especially where rather complicated and very private issues are addressed. This is just one of the many points we discussed vividly with Paul.

4.  Do you believe online patient reporting will become an acceptable practice for clinical trials?  What are the ramifications if it does?

I can very well imagine that the online capturing of PROs will one day become an integral part of clinical trials. It is quite an obvious thing; however, owing to regulatory requirements, it will be quite some time before it will actually be possible to implement this. The bottom line is that clinical trials will have to be conducted for each score demonstrating equivalence between paper-based and web-based capturing. Not all of the scores have actually been evaluated for online capturing. Another critical point surely is Internet access.

Having said that, it certainly also depends on the patient group and the actual medical condition under examination. I suppose that from a medical-ethical point of view it is problematic to exclude patients from a trial simply because they are unable to realize an online completion of the score. In this regard, I believe the first step to be taken must be to demonstrate equivalence between online and offline capturing of the score. Then one could give patients the option of using online assessment in the context of participating in a clinical trial and see what they would prefer to do.

The benefits would be immense. This method could highly enhance the quality of the data, the efficiency of data capturing and, not least of all, it would help reduce the costs of a clinical trial. I believe that online assessment will be a matter of course in the future, but not immediately.

For an ALS patient, an eye gaze system – a type of augmentative speech device that translates eye movements into words – can make it possible to communicate with loved ones when speech is impaired or lost.  But as animation studio owner Mick Ebeling found out, not every patient with advanced ALS has one.  The problem?  They’re big and expensive, and in many cases, US health insurers won’t cover them.

This discovery came about when Ebeling learned about a legendary Los Angeles graffiti artist named Tony “TEMPT ONE” Quan (whose “tag” is shown above), who was diagnosed with ALS at age 34.  Quan’s family told him that they were only able to communicate with their completely paralyzed son through spelling out words.  Shocked, Ebeling decided he had to help.  “There are certain inalienable rights that people are entitled to, and I think being able to express yourself is one of them,” says Ebeling, who now gives TED talks (see video below) about this unexpected calling.

First, Ebeling convinced Quan’s insurer to cover an eye gaze system so that the talented artist could “speak” again.  But he didn’t stop there.  He wanted Quan to not only be able to communicate but to draw, so that he could continue his career.  So Ebeling founded the Not Impossible Foundation and enlisted the help of programmers and open source activists in creating a low-cost, open-access writing and drawing device for paralyzed patients.  Despite having no background in ocular recognition, they pulled it off.

Named one of the top 50 inventions of 2010 by Time, the brilliantly simple EyeWriter device can be made for less than $50.  It involves a pair of sunglasses, IR LED lights, copper wire and a PC webcam.  There’s no technology component that can’t be found at Home Depot or Radio Shack, and that’s the point.  With free open-source software that can be downloaded online, the DIY EyeWriter is a device almost anyone can build and use.  (Download the instructions here.)

“We’ve created a device that has absolutely no limitations,” says Ebeling.  “There’s no insurance company that can say ‘no.’ There’s no hospital that can say ‘no.’ Anybody who’s paralyzed now has access to draw or communicate using only their eyes.”  Case in point:  in April 2009, Quan was able to create a completely new 10-story mural using only his eyes.  Two years later, his post-ALS artwork appeared alongside famous street artists Banksy and Shepard Fairey in a MOCA exhibit.

This amazing story of inspiration and ingenuity has now been turned into a documentary entitled Getting Up: The TEMPT ONE Story.  Directed by Ebeling’s wife Caskey, the film won the Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary at the 2012 Slamdance Film Festival.  Check out the trailer below and read what this husband-wife team think are the universal lessons from their EyeWriter journey.

At PatientsLikeMe we’ve been collecting self-reported data about patients with ALS (PALS) since 2006 – over 5,000 PALS to be exact! ALS is a disease that causes muscle wasting in the arms, legs, head and chest, which leads to problems walking, eating, and even communicating. However, unlike a disease like diabetes where there’s a blood test to tell you exactly how patients are doing, the main outcome measure used to record how PALS are doing is an instrument called the ALS Functional Rating Scale - Revised (ALSFRS-R).

It’s a short, 12-item questionnaire that is the “gold standard” tool for clinical trials, but it has one important caveat: it’s normally only completed by clinicians (doctors, nurses, research assistants, etc.). When PALS take part in clinical research studies the questions are read out loud to them and patients are not normally allowed to see their ALSFRS-R scores. When we launched PatientsLikeMe, the concept that we would give patients their very own copy of the ALSFRS-R scale and let PALS see their scores was controversial, and although we’ve gone on to publish a number of studies using the ALSFRS-R and even expanded it for highly impaired patients, the question has always remained: is a patient’s self report of their own ALSFRS-R scores “valid”? In other words, if a patient scored her walking as “3 out of 4” on the scale, would her clinician rate it the same?

Fortunately, our research partners at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, Germany, wanted to know the answer to this too! They’ve been piloting an exciting new project to encourage patients to share progress reports on their ALS with their doctors electronically, using the Internet and other tools including the ALSFRS-R. To support this, they conducted a study where 127 ALS patients were invited to rate their severity of illness over the web, and then were invited to clinic to have their ALSFRS-R score rated in the traditional way by a trained nurse.

As the chart above shows, the results were unequivocal: “Agreement between both data-capture methods was very high…there was no systematic directional bias to any differences…more than 95% of all pairs of measurement were within the limits of agreement.” Even better, 95% of patients found there was no significant time burden, nor physical or emotional strain from completing such reports over time.

So far this all might seem rather academic, so why is this important? As the authors go on to say, “Completing patient-reported outcomes online could be a way to complement face-to-face visits and manage care in a more personalized and needs-based way, rather than relying upon regular time-intervals such as three- or six-month follow-up appointments. Online patient-reported outcomes could also be used to improve the convenience and thereby participation in clinical trials that use the ALSFRS-R as an endpoint.”

The published study is now available open-access and so is free for all to read in its entirety. We’ll also have an interview with lead study author Dr. Thomas Meyer soon, so stay tuned.

You may remember our interview with ALS advocate Debra Quinn from last fall.  Today, we’d like to introduce you to another ALS patient activist in our midst:  Tom Murphy, a PatientsLikeMe member since January 2011.  As part of the ALS Treat Us Now nonprofit group, Tom and several other ALS patients around the country have launched a petition on Change.org that’s gaining steam.  Their goal?  20,000 signatures.

Addressed to “corporate citizens, FDA executives and neurologists,” the petition asks that “compassionate use” drugs be made available to ALS patients now.  What this means is that Tom and the Treat Us Now group want promising Phase II drugs showing safety and efficacy to be made available to ALS patients prior to FDA approval.  The reason is simple. ALS patients, who face an average life expectancy of two to five years following diagnosis, don’t have time to wait.

Check out our interview with Tom to learn how he became part of ALS Treat Us Now and what two experimental drugs his group is focused on in particular.

1.  How did you get involved in the “Treat Us Now” movement?

The ALS community seems to be a very close-knit group of people who readily share information and collaborate openly.  This is often related to the objectives of spreading ALS awareness, accelerating new treatments for people with ALS, and most importantly, doing whatever we can to assist in the identification and development of a cure for this rare and terminal disease that has been with us for way too long without an effective treatment or hope for a cure.

Since being diagnosed with ALS in December 2010, I (and many others like myself) have developed a very extensive “network” within this community utilizing blogs, email, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, LinkedIn, PatientsLikeMe, ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI), the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and the ALS Association (ALSA) and other ALS-related internet sites.

This network included Ms. Sherron Greene from Kaplan, LA (whose brother Kendall was officially diagnosed in October 2010), who was working with the Treat Us Now group and reached out for my assistance with some research and ALS points of contact at various medical facilities involved in ALS clinical trials. I wanted to be part of this Treat Us Now team and the rest is history.

2.  What kind of response have you received to the petition so far?

As of 12:00 p.m. EST today, we’ve gotten 10,520 petition signatures.  I’d ask folks to please take the time to watch the complete video below about my friend Kendall Saltzman, and you will begin to understand much better the urgency of our fight regarding compassionate use drugs for people with ALS.

3.  Tell us about the two drugs – dexpramipexole and NP001 – mentioned in the petition.

Highly related to the Parkinson’s disease drug pramipexole (Mirapex), the neuro-protectant dexpramipexole (Empower) may slow ALS progression by keeping the power on in deteriorating motor nerves. Dexpramipexole is thought to maintain mitochondrial function in people with ALS by detoxifying reactive oxygen and nitrogen species.

In the Phase II study, ALS progressed 31% slower in patients taking 300mg of dexpramipexole daily compared to placebo.  It also appeared to be safe and well-tolerated.  The drug, now licensed to Biogen, is currently being tested at the Phase III stage in about 800 patients at 81 sites worldwide.  ALS TDI calls it “extremely promising.”

In May 2011, I was one of the first 10 ALS patients to be enrolled in the Phase III trial at the University of Virginia.  The FDA fast-tracked dexpramipexole in 2009 due to the need for a more effective treatment for ALS.  Initial Phase III results are expected in 2013.  (Learn more about dexpramipexole here.)

The experimental drug NP001, administered by intravenous injection, is still in the Phase II clinical trial stage.  NP001 may lower the levels of activated cytotoxic macrophages in people with ALS, thus reducing inflammation and further injury to the motor nerves.  The Phase II double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial is ongoing at several US locations.  Unless an early usage allowance is granted, it may require an additional 5-7 years of testing.

Led by top ALS researcher Dr. Robert G. Miller of Forbes Norris MDA/ALS Research Center in San Francisco, this trial is notable as the scientific foundation of NP001 is extremely sound.  Andrew Gengos, CEO of Neuraltus, the manufacturer of NP001, says, “Our hope is that if we can reduce or eliminate the neuroinflammation, it will have a beneficial effect on the underlying progression of ALS.”  (Learn more about NP001 here.)

4.  Beyond signing the petition, what else can people do to become ALS activists?

Take part in the activities and initiatives of the ALS Association (ALSA), the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI, founded by PatientsLikeMe’s Jamie Heywood) and Treat Us Now.

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What does PatientsLikeMe think about compassionate use?  “Our society needs to rethink the balance of risk and reward to allow patients the right to pursue the treatments they believe can help them,” says Co-Founder and Chairman Jamie Heywood, whose brother Stephen died from ALS. “This is a complex problem with many balancing issues, but I believe that there needs to be a mechanism for those that consent and who understand the risks to pursue options they chose regardless of regulatory status. Those facing illness should not be denied the right to self-determine their own path to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

What kinds of things do we cover in our monthly newsletters for members? Take a look at the excerpt below from our February edition. Also, in case you didn’t know, anyone – whether a PatientsLikeMe member or not – can view our current and past newsletters in our Newsletter Archive. See what we’ve been up to recently, and if you are member who’s not opted in to the newsletter, sign up today.

MONTHLY MUSINGS

Ever feel like you’re so busy seeing specialists that it’s easy to forget about your annual physical?  In addition to checking up on your overall health, an “annual” is a great time to monitor your blood work – such as cholesterol and Vitamin D levels – which you can now record on your PatientsLikeMe profile.  It’s also a good opportunity to discuss any new concerns with your primary care physician (PCP).

But with only a few minutes with your PCP and a whole year’s worth of health matters to cover, it can be hard to remember what’s happened between visits, and even harder to get to everything that’s important. Fortunately, your printable and customizable Doctor Visit Sheet (DVS) can help.  Bring this complete record with you to jog your memory and get your doctor updated quickly.

The DVS now includes your InstantMe history along with all the helpful notes you’ve made about things like treatment changes and new or repeat symptoms.  Bottom line: the more you use InstantMe, the more details you’ll have about how you’ve been feeling – and why.

Are you due for an “annual”?  Customize and print your DVS here.

- Kate, Emma, Liz, Jeanette & Sharry

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

What’s happening in the forum?  Check out some of these active threads below.  Then jump in with your own questions and answers.

• Anyone tried trigger point injections? (Neurological Room)
• Muscles reacting badly to exercise – help! (PatientsLikeMe Room)
• I may look normal, but I feel so alone (Mental Health Room)
• Treatment or no treatment – that’s the question (Epilepsy Room)
• Newly diagnosed and feeling overwhelmed (FM/CFS/ME Room)
• Any ideas for cognitive difficulties? (MS Room)

Need help with something on the site?  Visit the PatientsLikeMe Site Help Room for answers from veteran members.

PUTTING THE “INSTANT” IN INSTANTME

Did you know there’s a mobile version of InstantMe that’s now available for iPhone, iPad and, most recently, Android users? We hope it’s a convenient way to record how you’re feeling on the go – whether you’re in the line at the store or watching your child’s soccer game.  Stay tuned as we continue to improve Mobile InstantMe in 2012.

We first introduced you to E-Patient Dave – a well-known blogger, author and keynote speaker in the healthcare space – last summer.  Given our similar views on many health matters, we see a lot of E-Patient Dave at the conferences and events we attend.  Case in point, our President and Co-Founder Ben Heywood was on a panel with him at the Military Health System Conference just a few weeks ago.

For this particular “high-speed” panel, each speaker was given just 12 minutes to share their story.  So what did E-Patient Dave do?  Exactly what any good digital age citizen would:  he covered the important things and then directed people to his website to find all the related websites and resources.  Given that he’s a cancer survivor and e-patient advocate who believes in “letting patients help,” we were curious what links E-Patient Dave recommends for others who are seeking to take control of their health and join the e-patient movement.

Here’s a sampling of Dave’s top resources along with a brief description:

All About the E-Patient Movement, and Its Founder, Dr. Tom Ferguson (“Doctom”)

• Society for Participatory Medicine, its journal and its blog e-patients.net (the hub)
• Medical Self-Care (pioneering 1985 article by Dr. Tom Ferguson)
• e-Patients as Medical Researchers (key 2002 article by Dr. Tom Ferguson)
• e-Patients White Paper (see Ferguson’s Seven Preliminary Conclusions, Chapter 2)
• Patient Activation Measure (Dave’s article about developing patient engagement)

Other Resources for the Budding E-Patient

• Visible Body (a good start to understanding anatomy)
• Open Notes (a doctor-patient project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
• Peer-to-Peer Healthcare (insightful 2011 Pew Internet independent research report)
• CaringBridge (patient blogs to ease the communication burden during a health crisis)
• GlowCaps (prescription bottle caps that use light/sound to help remind you)

(See Dave’s full list of resources here.)

What about all of you e-patients out there?  Do you have any Internet resources that other patients should know about?  Share your own recommendations in the comments section.

p.s.  In December, E-Patient Dave stopped by our office to talk to the team during our weekly Journal Club luncheon.  Stay tuned for a podcast of what he shared with us.

(This post has been repurposed from an article written by PatientsLikeMe’s Paul Wicks for the scientific journal Clinical Investigation.)

But when it comes to clinical trials, can we afford to let it be?

“Information (or data) wants to be free” – so goes the mantra of hackers and data activists. In the past this meant computer geeks hacking into secure private networks to fulfill their own curiosity or liberate secret knowledge. Today, voluntary “data liberation,” as practiced by governments and corporations, is relatively commonplace and semiorganized groups with data freedom agendas, such as Wikileaks and Anonymous, have entered the mainstream consciousness.

For me, it feels increasingly challenging to delineate the margins where free data is good or bad. A highly networked, mobile-enabled popular uprising is considered a “revolution” when it’s against an oppressive regime, but considered a “menace” when it is a disenfranchised mob rioting in a western democracy. Bravely recorded videos of civilians attacked by autocratic regime military forces are essential in prosecuting crimes against humanity, but videos leaked from within a democratic military are a “threat to national security.” So while data itself may want to be free, we don’t always want it to be. And so, to clinical trials.

From a societal perspective, the requirement for any trials conducted in the USA to register on ClinicalTrials.gov can only be a good thing in preventing past sins, such as suppressing negative trials or changing end points. As the US government makes this data open, it also allows repurposing. For instance, PatientsLikeMe imports the complete dataset from ClinicalTrials.gov every night to let our membership know (free of charge) about the 30,000+ active trials for which they may be eligible. So far, so good. But what if even more clinical trial data were free?

Read the rest of R&D Director Paul Wicks’ editorial in Clinical Investigation here.

Did you catch the pre-game show before Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVI?  If not, you missed a beautiful NBC piece about Steve Gleason, who spent seven seasons as a safety with the New Orleans Saints.

Diagnosed with ALS a year ago, Gleason now walks with a cane, and his speech has been impacted.  The new father remains upbeat, however, and has thrown his energy into ALS advocacy work through Team Gleason.  (One recent project: bringing two ALS patients to the Super Bowl to fulfill their lifelong dream.)

Tune in below for the full NBC profile, which includes an interview with Steve, 34, and his wife, Michel:

Steve’s story reminded us of two topics covered on our blog last year.  During the NBC piece, Michel states that one of her biggest fears is Steve losing ability to speak.  This devastating aspect of ALS recently came up in our interview with ALS blogger Rachael, who discussed how important her eye gaze system (which translates eye movements into words) has been since losing her speech.  She says, “It allows me to converse on an almost level footing, conveying thoughts and observations, expressing myself in my own style with all its complexities and idiosyncrasies.”

Finally, Steve is another example of an athlete being diagnosed with ALS, just like baseball player Lou Gehrig, who is indelibly associated with the disease.  The NBC piece explores the potential connection between impact sports and neurological diseases.  Other researchers, such as Dr. Martin Turner, are investigating a possible link between ALS and athleticism in general.  Check out our post “ALS and Athleticism:  What Have We Learned?” to hear more about Dr. Turner’s research and how PatientsLikeMe data on ALS handedness (i.e. which hand is dominant) has contributed to it.

Last November, we shared our takeaways from TEDx Cambridge, a one-day event featuring 30+ speakers and lots of Ideas Worth Spreading (TED’s mission).  The theme for this particular gathering was “Thrive.”  How can we as individuals – and communities – not just survive but thrive?

One of the speakers to take a crack at that question was PatientsLikeMe Co-Founder and President Ben Heywood, who talked about the story behind PatientsLikeMe.  In addition to sharing how it all began with his brother Stephen’s diagnosis with ALS, and what PatientsLikeMe is trying to do (“a revolution of openness”), Ben focused on how we can thrive as a company against big expectations – both external and internal.

Tune in to the video below to find out just that.  Congrats to Ben on an inspiring talk – not to mention his standing ovation!

Please meet ALS patient alsgirl (front and center in the wheelchair), who led a PatientsLikeMeInMotion-sponsored team at the 2011 Walk to Defeat ALS in Dallas, Texas.  A longtime PatientsLikeMe member who is part of the ALS Public Registry, alsgirl has been living with this degenerative disorder – also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease – for 16 years.

Congrats to alsgirl and all of our PatientsLikeMeInMotion-sponsored teams for your efforts to raise funds and awareness for your health condition. We’re honored to support you along your journey.  For more PatientsLikeMeInMotion team photos, check out our growing Flickr slideshow.  (And if you’re a PatientsLikeMeInMotion team leader who has NOT sent in photos, we encourage you to do so.  You just might be featured on the blog next!)

Thinking about organizing a team for spring?  Learn more about the PatientsLikeMeInMotion program today.

Many people look at a new year as a fresh start - a chance to begin new routines, eliminate bad habits and shift priorities.  But not everyone believes in making resolutions.

Here are several different patient perspectives on approaching the new year:

• “In 2012, I will make daily exercise a priority. Research reveals it is the one thing that may slow disease progression. It also improves overall health and makes us look and feel better.”   - Patient with Parkinson’s disease

• “I am filled with great hope for us all. In 2011, the pace of research breakthroughs increased dramatically. Most importantly, new research modalities using human tissue have been developed and are already contributing to major breakthroughs in understanding the biopathways affecting ALS. We are closer to a cure than ever.” - Patient with ALS

• “My resolutions are pretty simplistic:  Sleep hygiene and getting more (sleep, that is). Discontinuing the practice of making long and unrealistic to-do lists.  I’ll start with sleep and go from there.” - Patient with major depressive disorder

• “I have no expectations that this new year will be any better then the last. That way I don’t get disappointed so whatever does happen will be a bonus.”  - Member with Wegener’s granulomatosis

• “I’m going to cut out sugar and white flour foods.  I know, I know, I’ve said this before and I’ve done this before, and it’s really hard for me, but it works for weight loss and being able to tap into my energy.  So here we go again, looking towards a healthier 2012.” - Patient with fibromyalgia

• “My resolution is to do more, no matter what it is.  Smile more, laugh more, cry more, walk more, yoga more, love more, hug more, write more, hurt more, sing more, read more…you get the idea.  I figure more means I’m alive, less may mean I’m dying.” - Patient with Parkinson’s disease

What will you be doing differently in 2012 - if anything?  Share your thoughts in the comments section and read more about exercise, diet and sleep at PatientsLikeMe.

Please meet ALS patient iceberg (front right), who led a PatientsLikeMeInMotion-sponsored team at the 2011 Walk to Defeat ALS in Western Pennsylvania.  We count at least 25 bright blue PatientsLikeMeInMotion t-shirts worn by the team (called “Hrezo’s Heroes”), making this one of the biggest groups we’ve sponsored!

Congrats to iceberg and all of our PatientsLikeMeInMotion-sponsored teams for your efforts to raise funds and awareness for your health condition. We’re honored to support you along your journey.  For more PatientsLikeMeInMotion team photos, check out our growing Flickr slideshow.

Thinking about organizing a team for next spring?  Learn more about the PatientsLikeMeInMotion program today.