http://blog.patientslikeme.com PatientsLikeMe - Patients helping patients live better every day Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:36:00 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en February is AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month, sponsored by Prevent Blindness America.  Affecting part of the back of the eye called the macula, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) can cause the center area of your vision to become blurry or wavy.  It can also create a blind spot right in the center ... http://blog.patientslikeme.com/2012/02/09/what-do-you-know-about-age-related-macular-degeneration-amd/ 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 ... http://blog.patientslikeme.com/2012/02/07/former-nfl-player-steve-gleason%e2%80%99s-inspiring-als-story/ Are you one of the roughly 700 patients with psoriasis at PatientsLikeMe?  We’ve got some exciting new features just for you. At the end of 2011, we unveiled the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), a new 12-question survey that helps you measure how psoriasis affects your day-to-day life.   Answer the questions ... http://blog.patientslikeme.com/2012/02/06/new-quality-of-life-index-and-more-for-psoriasis/ We are!  Check out the PatientsLikeMe team members who donned red items (everything from ties to scarves to dresses) in support of National Wear Red Day.  Here’s to increasing awareness of heart disease – the number one killer of women – in 2012. Stay tuned for more about cardiovascular health throughout ... http://blog.patientslikeme.com/2012/02/03/are-you-decked-out-in-red-today/ Did you know that heart disease kills more women than all cancers combined?  And that it’s largely preventable? Now you do – and there’s something you can do about it.  Participate in National Wear Red Day® tomorrow, February 3, 2012.  Better yet, get your friends and co-workers to dig into their ... http://blog.patientslikeme.com/2012/02/02/wear-red-tomorrow-for-women%e2%80%99s-heart-health/ 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 ... http://blog.patientslikeme.com/2012/02/01/thriving-against-expectations-ben-heywood%e2%80%99s-moving-tedx-cambridge-talk/ Last week, PatientsLikeMe Co-Founder Jamie Heywood had the honor of speaking at the Personalized Medicine World Conference (PMWC), a two-day event held at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley.  His presentation was entitled “Patient Driven Convergence of Clinical Discovery and Care.”  In recognition of the conference’s venue as well ... http://blog.patientslikeme.com/2012/01/30/the-personalized-medicine-world-conference-in-photos-and-tweets/ Last June, we shared how our award-winning Clinical Trials tool was a product of “Wow Week,” which takes place every sixth week here at PatientsLikeMe.  It’s essentially our version of Google’s “20-percent time,” or a period of unstructured time where our engineers have the freedom to work on their own ... http://blog.patientslikeme.com/2012/01/27/2011-%e2%80%9cwow-week%e2%80%9d-highlights/ What kinds of things do we cover in our monthly newsletters for members? Take a look at the excerpt below from our January 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. ... http://blog.patientslikeme.com/2012/01/26/a-peek-at-the-january-newsletter-for-members/ I love the conveniences that come from having my data moved around online (with my permission, of course).  For example, TurboTax will pull all my information from my investment bank and the IRS, and then calculate how much I owe.  With me doing hardly anything, I'm done in about 20 ... http://blog.patientslikeme.com/2012/01/23/a-new-way-to-import-%e2%80%9cblue-button%e2%80%9d-patient-data-from-the-va/ Did you make a health-related New Year’s resolution?  And are you using technology—such as a smartphone app or website—to achieve your goal?  Create a short video about it, and you could win prizes ranging from $250 to $2,000 if your video is selected as one of the best! Sponsored by the ... http://blog.patientslikeme.com/2012/01/20/enter-the-healthy-new-year-video-challenge/ What’s it like to work at PatientsLikeMe?  We are continuing to reveal just that with our monthly blog series “A Day in the Life,” which features various employees from different departments.  Last month, we featured an interview with Research Scientist Mike Massagli, PhD, and today, we share our interview with ... http://blog.patientslikeme.com/2012/01/19/a-day-in-the-life-of-patientslikeme-user-experience-engineer-cris-necochea/