In yesterday’s post, we looked at some of the ways members of the PatientsLikeMe community are connecting with other patients and the value they are getting from it.  Today, we’ll highlight how one person can make an enormous difference and inspire you with her ability to connect with others.

One method of reaching out to another member on PatientsLikeMe is by leaving a comment on their profile page.  Often, you exchange comments to inquire about specific data on someone’s profile or to thank them for sharing.  However, one of the most common uses of the comments functionality is for existing members to welcome new members to the community.  This is has been affectionately coined the “Welcome Wagon,” and it is most prominent in our MS community.  Today, more than 71% of members in that community get a comment within the first 2 days.  Receiving a comment from a veteran PatientsLikeMe member when you first join the site is a great way to “welcome” you aboard and make you feel a part of the community.

A large part of the effectiveness of the MS Welcome Wagon can be attributed to a member named Diamondlil58.  Of the 150,000 comments that have been left on PatientsLikeMe, Diamondlil58 has left a staggering 16,000 of them, addressed to over 15,000 different members.  The graph above shows just how extensively Diamondlil58 has connected with the community through commenting.  In the graph, the dots represents patients in our MS community, and the lines represent a comment between them.  Diamondlil58 is the large green dot near the center.  Notice how she has touched both the inter-connected network of patients (on the right), as well as sent out a huge number of comments to others who aren’t yet as well-connected (the moon-like diagram on the left).  A large portion of these comments were part of the Welcome Wagon.

While the Welcome Wagon was started in the MS community, it has definitely caught on in other communities.  Here is a look at how Babsie, an active member in our Fibromyalgia community, has reached out to welcome new members.  Like Diamondlil38, Babsie has helped create a network of dialogue and connection between patients like you.

It’s inspiring to see how one person can touch so many.  Members often tell us how beneficial it is to have a way to find “patients like me.”  (In fact, we cited a few examples yesterday from our research study that shows just how valuable that can be to one’s health).  However, that “find” functionality alone is not what makes this community what it is today.  It’s the people who are using it.  It’s the people who are willing to openly share with one another; the people who reach out to make those connections (sometimes initiated by beacons, like Diamondlil58); it’s people like you who make the most of being a member of PatientsLikeMe.

The next two blogs in this series will include interviews with Diamondlil58 and Babsie.  Stay tuned as we climb aboard the Welcome Wagon and hear what they have to say.

It’s National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Awareness Week.  There are more than 17,400 patients in the PatientsLikeMe MS community sharing data about their symptoms, treatments and side effects, lifestyle modifications and overall health outcomes.

In honor of the week, and March being National MS Awareness Month, we will be posting interviews with MS patients and nonprofit partners on the blog each week to help raise awareness about real-world experiences with the condition and initiatives that are keeping the research going.  Today, is our interview with gardener, one of our very active patient members who joined the community back in 2007 just after it launched.  She recently answered some questions from Amy Morton, a member of our marketing team here at PatientsLikeMe, about life, living with MS and being a member of PatientsLikeMe.

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	(Amy) What’s on your mind these days?
	(Gardener) Right now, at this moment, my cats, because they’re begging for food, and being very loud and persistent. In general, I’ve been focusing on violin and accordion performances coming up in April. I’m playing dance solos. It should be fun. That, and figuring out something to make as a demo for this month’s sewing group. I went over two years of having something new at every meeting until October of last year, then got whacked by a bout of depression. It’s lifting, and things are fun again. My friends aren’t annoying anymore, either. Come to think of it, everyone was kind of annoying during the worst of it. At the time, I told a friend I wanted to curl up in the bottom of my closet. She suggested bringing along a fluffy blanket and a pillow.  That wasn’t an annoying suggestion.
	(Amy) What do you enjoy most about winter?
	(Gardener) Watching my dog play in the snow. He likes the deep fluffy snow we’ve gotten recently and shows such joy running through it. The lower temperature is nice, too, as is meeting people for whom this is their first real winter. Seeing others enjoy things like snowball fights so much gives me a better outlook on winter. I have never been good at throwing, so I just watch.
	(Amy) How do you keep perspective with your condition?
	(Gardener) For a long time, I’ve tried to keep in mind that the only constant is change. That outlook helped a lot when I was diagnosed. This is no one’s fault, it’s not a lesson, and it didn’t happen for a reason. MS is a random thing. It’s hard to take random things personally. Also, I’ve had friends go through refugee situations. After hearing their stories, it’s hard to think of this as more than an inconvenience. Yes, MS sucks, but there are many things that are worse.
	(Amy) Share why you decided to make your profile public.
	(Gardener) Something that I’ve found frustrating in general is how few things people really discuss. By having the profiles open, you can see what others are taking for symptoms, and how they like the treatments. You can also see what kind of results people are getting with what they’re doing. It would be hypocritical to use a resource like that and not return the favor. Also, PatientsLikeMe feels like a safe place to share.
	(Amy) Thanks for sharing, Gardener!

Recognized by Fast Company as two of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World, PatientsLikeMe and Novartis have united to launch a new community for organ transplant recipients (including kidney, lung, heart and liver).  In the news release announcement, PatientsLikeMe President Ben Heywood and Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez discuss what impact this community could have for organ recipients.  Ben also discusses the community in more detail as part of our PatientsLikeMeOnCall^TM podcast series.  Listen in to learn more about our new programs PatientsLikeMeMentors^TM and PatientsLikeMeInMotion^TM.

In honor of the launch of the new PatientsLikeMe Epilepsy community this week, we have created a video highlighting how patients are coming together to share their experiences with epilepsy and learn from others. It’s now available on our PatientsLikeMe Epilepsy YouTube page.

This short video includes quotes from some of our members about what drove them to join the online community, and walks you through what the community looks like and how members are using it.   Know someone with epilepsy?  Share this video, our interview with Blueyedgoddez, and/or our announcement with partnering company, UCB.

Welcome to all those joining the epilepsy community!

(Special thanks to our new marketing team member, Aaron Fleishman, for pulling this video together.  It’s Aaron’s voice and his band’s music you’ll hear throughout.)

Pharmaceutical, Social Media Leaders Examine Real-World Impact of Epilepsy

CAMBRIDGE, MA and ATLANTA, GA — (Marketwire – January 26, 2010) –  Today, PatientsLikeMe, the leading online community for people with life-changing conditions, and biopharmaceutical company UCB open the doors to a free online community for people living with epilepsy in the U.S. Focused on learning from patients’ real-world experiences, the online community allows members to create profiles that record and share their treatments, symptoms, as well as seizure type, frequency and severity.

“As a patient-centered company, we are constantly seeking innovative ways to enhance and adjust our approaches to meet patient needs,” says Iris Loew-Friedrich, Executive Vice-President, Chief Medical Officer, UCB. “We believe this community will be a source of information that will allow us to better understand people living with epilepsy and may help us design clinical programs that incorporate real-world patient needs and experiences in a measurable way.”

Among the research being conducted, PatientsLikeMe and UCB are analyzing anonymized data shared by participating epilepsy patients, with their consent, via an online clinical survey built into the site to measure patients’ quality of life (including cognitive, social and physical function). Completed by 60 patients testing the site since mid-November, initial survey results show the patients are most concerned with the cognitive impact of living with epilepsy (such as lack of concentration or memory loss).

Adds Ben Heywood, co-founder and president of PatientsLikeMe, “Patients are telling us that, in addition to seizures, there are many more significant aspects to the disease. It’s this type of real-world data and insight about epilepsy that is going to change how this disease is treated.”

To better understand the impact of medications that treat epilepsy in the real world, PatientsLikeMe and UCB are also taking the lead in implementing a drug safety program within this patient community. The program is designed to capture and report adverse events associated with approved UCB epilepsy therapies to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Last June, PatientsLikeMe and UCB announced this strategic partnership to build an online community for people living with epilepsy, which debuts today at www.patientslikeme.com/epilepsy/community.

You can see the full news release from PatientsLikeMe and UCB on Marketwire.

Every December 1^st, we join hands with the HIV community at large in recognition of World AIDS Day.

The theme of World AIDS Day this year is leadership — a fitting theme for the 2500+ patients who are leading the way through openness in the PatientsLikeMe HIV community.  These leaders have chosen to share their health data and their personal stories of living with HIV, not only to manage their own disease, but also to help better the lives of others with HIV.

For 27 years, HIV/AIDS has been a global epidemic.  Today, our online community has a few thousand patients whose experiences of living with HIV run the gamut – from the newly diagnosed to those who were infected long ago.  Approximately  334 patients (or 12% of our community) indicate they were infected with HIV more than 20 years ago (such as BrightonBear, an early member who shared his story with us in this interview).  Similarly, 84 patients indicate on their profiles that they have been living with AIDS for more than 15 years.  All of these members have a lot to share – both through data and conversation – about how they continue to face the symptoms, treatments and side effects, and stigma of living HIV-positive.  There are also members who are new to HIV, with 162 patients in our HIV Community indicating they were diagnosed less than 2 years ago.  Our patients, both newly diagnosed and veterans in the HIV community, are true leaders – openly sharing their real-world health data and personal stories about living with HIV.  Here are some interesting tidbits the community is sharing:

• How are patients like you evaluating the most popular treatments used for HIV? See what they say in our treatment reports about Atripla, Ritonavir, and Truvada.
• Ever heard of Coconut Macaroon Cookies used to “treat” HIV? A handful of PatientsLikeMe members cite it as a great way for patients to curb their diarrhea, a common side effect of their cocktails.
• That numbness in your hands and feet could be peripheral neuropathy, a common symptom in HIV. Patients are discussing treatments ranging from prescription drugs to lifestyle modifications to lessen the effects.
• Some of the most discussed topics patients in our forum include specific treatments (i.e., Atripla and Truvada) and side effects, common symptoms (like fatigue) and other quality of life issues like depression, relationships, dealing with a new diagnosis, and coping.

For the past two years, PatientsLikeMe has worked in cooperation with AIDS.gov, a government media program committed to improving the lives of patients with HIV.  Check out their “Facing AIDS” photo campaign in honor of World AIDS Day.

Thank you to all of our members who continue to share and learn. It’s you who are leading the way.

Earlier this Fall at Medicine 2.0, PatientsLikeMe was honored to receive the inaugural Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Award for our paper on what we can learn about drugs post market from patients reporting treatment experiences on PatientsLikeMe.

Once a drug is on the market, it can be difficult to evaluate how it’s working in the real world for different kinds of people using it for different purposes. In this paper, our research team examined how we can learn from collecting the experiences from individual members scattered around the world into a single database. The study focused on Amitriptyline, a medication used widely and for a variety of purposes, and reports on why patients take it, the efficacy of the drug, its side-effects and associated burden.

To see patients’ real world experiences with a specific treatment, like Amitriptyline, you can browse the thousands of treatment reports shared on PatientsLikeMe.  You can also view a summary of our Medicine 2.0 presentation here or below to learn more about this study.  The full paper will be published in 2010, so stay tuned!

PatientsLikeMe made the following announcement last night at the TEDMED conference.  For more on Jamie Heywood’s presentation, check out what people are saying on Twitter.

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PATIENTSLIKEME ADDS ONLINE COMMUNITY FOR PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME
Researchers Use Open Medical Network to Measure Real-World Impact of XMRV Virus

Cambridge, MA–October 30, 2009–PatientsLikeMe (www.patientslikeme.com), the leading online community for people with life-changing conditions, announces the expansion of its fibromyalgia community to welcome patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also know as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). By sharing information about their experience with CFS, patients can now find others just like them, including other patients who may have the newly discovered xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV). The purpose of this expansion is for PatientsLikeMe to research the impact XMRV has on CFS patients.

“With 1 million patients diagnosed with CFS, and potentially 10 million Americans who could be infected with the XMRV virus, there is an unique opportunity to use the power of our open medical network to understand this illness and accelerate the validation and development of new biomarkers and treatments,” says Jamie Heywood, co-founder and chairman of PatientsLikeMe.

There are currently more than 7,000 patients, many who have CFS, in the PatientsLikeMe fibromyalgia community sharing meaningful data for researchers to analyze about the condition. As part of this expansion, the PatientsLikeMe platform will allow patients who test positive for XMRV to indicate that on their profiles, much how ALS and Parkinson’s patients can now add their genetic information.

Adds David S. Williams III, head of business development at PatientsLikeMe, “This discovery may spur research into the efficacy of anti-retrovirals for patients with CFS, which could have a dramatic impact on the $10 billion market for these medications.”

Heywood will announce the new CFS community on stage at the health technology conference TEDMED in San Diego, CA today. CFS marks the 17th condition available to patients on PatientsLikeMe, which now boasts more than 45,000 patients sharing health data on treatments, symptoms and outcomes. The company’s next community for people with epilepsy is scheduled to launch in early 2010. More about PatientsLikeMe partnerships can be found on its partner site: http://partners.patientslikeme.com.

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We are excited to present the first member video for the PatientsLikeMe Mood community and what better way to kick it off than with one that represents the voice of the patient.

In June, we launched The Patient Voice with the inaugural report on inpatient therapy, a topic often discussed by our Mood community members.  At the time of the report, 63% of patients on our site reported an efficacy of “moderate” or “major” for inpatient therapy.

Many patients have already benefited from the information in the report, so we decided to create a video that highlights our patient members’ tips and experiences. Check it out on our YouTube or Facebook page, but if you visit the latter don’t forget to become our fan!

If you want to know more about patients’ experiences with inpatient therapy, you can download the full report here. It includes even more tips and personal stories, interesting facts about the PatientsLikeMe community and a worksheet that will help you make the most out of your hospital stay. Of course, none of this would have been possible if patients like you were not willing to share. We are always eager to hear what you have to say, so please share on.

Once again, special thanks to our summer intern, Shane, for his work on the video!

With 13,000+ members, the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) community is currently the largest community at PatientsLikeMe. Many of our members are just as active online as they are off. There are a countless number of ways for people to get involved in supporting research for the disease, and many patients choose to participate in the thousands of walks and runs that take place year round. At PatientsLikeMe, our members have a voice in research by sharing data about their condition.  However, we also support patients’ decision to take their involvement offline.

Earlier this year, PatientsLikeMe introduced a program to support and sponsor Walk/Run teams. We are encouraged by the success this initiative has already seen since its inception. To date, hundreds of people across all our communities have participated in teams sponsored by PatientsLikeMe, with many of those teams from our MS community.

Want to see some of our patients in action? Head on over to the PatientsLikeMe YouTube page at www.youtube.com/PatientsLikeMeMS and check out some of your fellow patients on the move.  All the pictures from the video and more are also in our Facebook photo album, so check them out (and while you’re there don’t forget to friend us either!) Thanks to all who participated in the program and gave us the material for this first video. Keep on walkin’ everyone!

(Special props to our summer intern, Shane, for editing the video and producing the music for it!)

Today – June 27, 2009 – is National HIV Testing Day.

AIDS.gov, the one-stop access to U.S. Government HIV/AIDS information and an organization PatientsLikeMe collaborates with to raise awareness of HIV, has been running a campaign all month to promote National HIV Testing Day.  As part of the campaign, AIDS.gov launched the “I Know. I Took the Test” blog series, featuring videos and stories of people talking about what taking an HIV test means to them. The series highlights several HIV testing story campaigns from organizations such as the National Association of People Living with AIDS , POZ , Southern AIDS Living Quilt , The Positive Project , and others.

In support of this campaign, PatientsLikeMe recently invited members of our HIV community to tell us in a few sentences about their experience and/or thoughts about HIV testing.  Here’s what they had to say:

“I think it is probably the single most important thing a person can do for him/herself. The test will show if a person is infected, important knowledge no matter how it turns out.”

“Getting tested for HIV is so important. The knowledge of knowing can make a difference as to how you will live your journey in life.”

“Being tested for me caused me to change my outlook on sex, changed my life in such a way that gives me a opportunity to speak on the importance of being tested , and to share information about treatment, and that there is a life after testing takes place.  If we ever what to see an end to this very serious problem across the world we must continue to speak and encourage testing  in all walks of life.  Moot for me I think not, important to get the word out yes,yes, yes.   Experience is the best teacher.”

“I agree that experience is our best teacher. If you haven’t experienced things how could you give advice?”

“Knowledge is power, knowing your HIV status truly allows you to start living a healthier life, whether you’re are positive or negative.”

Want to know more about how to spread the word on HIV testing? Check out the latest promotions at AIDS.gov and, as always, feel free to share your own experiences there and with PatientsLikeMe.

Today is an exciting day for PatientsLikeMe.   In a first-of-its-kind industry-patient partnership, PatientsLikeMe is joining forces with biopharma company, UCB, to launch a new community for people with epilepsy to capture real-world experiences of the disease and help advance research.

The news release announcing the partnership is below.

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BRUSSELS, BELGIUM and CAMBRIDGE, MA–(Marketwire – June 15, 2009) – Biopharma company UCB and PatientsLikeMe, the leading online community for people with life-changing conditions, today announced a strategic partnership to create an online, open epilepsy community that captures real-world experiences of people living with epilepsy in the U.S.

Scheduled to launch in early 2010, this platform will be designed to collect, analyze and reflect information received from people with epilepsy, regardless of their diagnosis, prognosis or treatment regimen.

More…

Despite some recent happenings in the news, we’re here to assure you that health 2.0 is still very much alive.  Here’s our recent announcement about our new partnership with 23andMe.

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PatientsLikeMe, the first community-based personalized medicine platform for people with life-changing conditions, and 23andMe, the world’s leading personal genomics company, announce a partnership today to help people with Parkinson’s disease.  PatientsLikeMe is teaming with 23andMe on its effort to recruit 10,000 people with Parkinson’s for a massive study of the disease, and give patients a way to learn more about their personal genetics.

“Today, technology is moving faster than the research establishment,” says James Heywood, co-founder and chairman of PatientsLikeMe.  “We are excited to see what happens when you give patients the ability to see variations of their disease and compare it to their own, while enabling them to easily define their personal genomics.”

More…

Did you know this April is both Parkinson’s Awareness Month and the 2-year anniversary of the PatientsLikeMe Parkinson’s community?  We invite you to celebrate with us all month as we share real-world patient insights and experiences of living with this disease…and we ask you to share on!

The PatientsLikeMe Parkinson’s community has come a long way since it launched in April 2007 – topping more than 3,400 patient members in just 24 months.  Our community members share so much about themselves on a daily basis – from details about how they manage their condition to their personal experiences and stories.  Why share?  Simply stated, to learn more about themselves while helping others better understand this condition.   In the spirit of awareness and sharing, this month we’ll share with you some of what we’ve learned so far from these inspirational individuals and keep it real with some personal patient stories about living with PD.

Additionally, later this month, PatientsLikeMe is once again sponsoring the Parkinson’s Unity Walk (www.unitywalk.org), “the largest single-day fundraising event for the Parkinson’s community.”  The event, which brings together thousands of people touched by Parkinson’s, takes place every spring in New York City’s Central Park.  PatientsLikeMe members from all over the U.S. will once again be meeting in New York to walk together as a team.  (Check out some of our onsite interviews with PatientsLikeMe members from the 2008 Unity Walk and keep an eye out  for 2009 highlights).

Stay tuned for more from us as the month unfolds. Until then, what else is happening this year for PD Awareness Month? Share your events or PD news in the comments below!