“If you want to understand health, you have to understand what it means to be sick, at phenomic and molecular levels, so you can correct it in a holistic and effective way.”
– Jamie Heywood

In February, PatientsLikeMe Co-Founder and Chairman Jamie Heywood was invited to participate in a “Innovation Series” panel sponsored by the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge.  Entitled The Future of the Personal Genome, the event focused on what lies ahead now that genome sequencing is becoming more affordable for the average person.  (It cost around a million dollars in 2007; today, it costs close to $1,000.)

What is Jamie’s perspective on personal genetics, including the issues and opportunities involved?  Check out the first seven minutes of the video below for an overview.  From there, the panel – which included Dr. Michael Pellini, Dr. George Church and Colin Hill, and was moderated by Dr. Kevin Davies – digs into the intricacies of this important topic, including how to use genetic data to develop more personalized medicine.

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.”

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