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 employees from different departments.  So far, we’ve interviewed User Experience Engineer Cris Necochea, Research Assistant Shivani Bhargava, Office Manager Alison Dutton, Research Scientist Timothy Vaughan, Biz Dev’er Arianne Graham, Product Manager Maureen Oakes and Community Manager Jeanette DeVita.  Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Boyle, who joined the company six months ago to help us maintain excellent quality assurance (QA).  What that means is that when you find a bug in our platform, Brian is the guy who makes sure it gets fixed!

1.  What’s surprised you the most since joining PatientsLikeMe in March?

PatientsLikeMe is an amazing office to work in. I was immediately welcomed by a team of talented and brilliant individuals. The people here are so nice to be around. The bar of excellence is raised daily, and we challenge ourselves to produce the best possible product. Every morning I arrive to an atmosphere that is rich with confidence and satisfaction of our product.

2.  Tell us about the role of the Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer.

My job at PatientsLikeMe is to collect bug reports from users and co-workers and send them to the engineers. The engineers take the information, locate the problem and fix the code that caused the error. When I collect the bug reports, I research what is causing the problem and prioritize the bug queue. The bugs on my radar are ones that a user would find and that could disrupt their experience on the site. Solving these problems is very rewarding and important for the user experience.

3.  What do you find satisfying – as well as challenging – about your job?

Working closely with users to understand their perspective and then carrying that viewpoint to the engineers is my first priority. It can be challenging working through the volume of requests and researching all of them, while putting them in an acceptable order to be fixed. Fortunately, the engineers are very helpful, offering insights and understanding. I sit with a team of amazing developers I can turn to and ask for help. Working with the engineers to solve problems is immensely satisfying.

4.  I understand you have a lot of active hobbies, such as rock climbing and skiing.  How does that fit into your approach to wellness?

I have found that engaging my mind and body in physical activity encourages a healthy perspective to my thought process. My time away from work is spent working on goals and physical challenges. I have a few different levels of activities that I use to distill my thought process and better serve my prioritization skills.

Skiing and team sports are hobbies that I do every once in awhile that allow me to focus on something new for a day. The next level of activities are accomplished a few times a week; rock climbing, yoga, mountain biking and road biking are things I can do after work. My favorite activity is skydiving. I have been jumping out of planes (almost) every warm weekend since 2007. I have over 550 jumps, and I am a tandem instructor at Jumptown in Orange, MA.

My passion in skydiving is tandem jumping and big way jumping. Tandem jumping is hooking up a first jump student to my parachute and taking them on their first skydive. Big way jumping is when I take my own parachute and go up with 60 of my closest friends and jump out of three different airplanes at the same time. I use skydiving to set long term goals. It can take years to attain certain skills in skydiving, and accomplishing those goals is very rewarding.

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Interested in making a difference in patients’ lives?  Check out our Careers page to see our current job openings.  Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, PatientsLikeMe is looking for a Marketing Analyst, Outcomes Research Scientist and more at the moment.

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 employees from different departments.  So far, we’ve interviewed User Experience Engineer Cris Necochea, Research Assistant Shivani Bhargava and Office Manager Alison Dutton.  Today we hear from Research Scientist Timothy Vaughan, who earned his PhD in physics before deciding to focus his simulation and modeling skills on medical questions.

1.  What research projects are you working on at the moment?

I am working on a few different things. My primary focus recently has been on modeling multiple sclerosis (MS). As just about anyone with the disease can tell you, MS is a highly complex, highly variable illness. To even get a good description of the experience of a patient is a challenge. As one of the “mathy” people at PatientsLikeMe, my job is to try to make the description as systematic and quantitative as possible, because mathematical relationships are often the best tools in trying to solve the underlying puzzle of what the body is doing.

So, for example, I have recently been looking at some of the ways that symptoms and the Multiple Sclerosis Rating Scale (MSRS) are interrelated, which may help us understand how functioning and symptoms go together. And, although I am focusing on MS, I am constantly struck by how certain concepts seem to apply across conditions, so I am hopeful that we can learn things that will ultimately help all our patients.

2.  Tell us how computer simulation and modeling help you do your job.

It is fair to say that my job would not even exist without computer simulation and modeling! Partly because clinical trials and other scientific methodologies have become so expensive and time-consuming, scientists in healthcare have to really become creative in trying to learn more about patients and their conditions. Simulations and modeling are becoming essential tools in the era of “big data” that PatientsLikeMe is at the forefront of.

3.  What do you see ahead in terms of PatientsLikeMe’s research potential?

I have to quote the Danish physicist Niels Bohr: “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” I think almost everyone in healthcare right now believes that patient-reported outcomes are going to be of greater and greater influence in the future…but no one is 100% certain how!

In many ways, research is forced to be in a somewhat opportunistic position, because one is never quite sure where the most promising frontiers are, where one is most likely to discover something interesting and useful for patients. But our research potential really stems from our patients. Their willingness to share how they are doing, in so many ways, gives us potential to not just work on what appears to be interesting now, but to quickly respond to new directions that might arise in the future.

4.  What are the three best things about working at PatientsLikeMe?

For me personally, the best thing about PatientsLikeMe is that every morning I wake up knowing that everything I work on is not just scientifically “interesting” (although I like that!), but also really has the potential to help patients’ lives. So, even though the work can be frustrating at times, it is always worthwhile.

The second awesome thing, and it’s almost a cliché to say around is here, is that the people here are so passionate and smart and great to work (and play!) with. Seeing other people working hard and caring deeply about what they do is a great motivation.  The third awesome thing: Alison makes sure there is a constant supply of York Peppermint Patties in the kitchen.

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.  So far, we’ve featured people like User Experience Engineer Cris Necochea and Research Assistant Shivani Bhargava.  Today, we share our interview with Office Manager Alison Dutton, who’s been keeping things running smoothly – and hilariously – for the past two years.  Find out what we learned from Alison about life at the epicenter of a startup.

1.  What’s it like being the Office Manager of a growing startup?

I have heard this particular question many times before and each time I give a different answer – all depending, of course, on how the previous day has ended. It can be incredibly exhilarating and at the same time exhausting mentally as well as physically. The important thing to note is that it’s never, ever dull.

Although this can be said for most positions in a startup, for me, I relish the spontaneity and craziness that ensues on a daily basis. I have had experiences with established companies that had more of a corporate culture. It is Groundhog Day all over again. Since I have a few startups under my belt, I am familiar with the energy, which is so addictive.  Everyone should try it once in their lifetime.

2.  You have such a great sense of humor.  Is that a requirement in your position?

The humor isn’t just a prerequisite for the job but also for life in general. I grew up the only girl in a household of boys, so I probably had to develop a sense of humor and thick skin a little quicker than most. As far as it coming in handy for my job – things change quickly in a startup environment and specifically with a job like mine, where one day you’re preparing for a board meeting and the next day you’re planning a company field trip to the local pub. You must be able to roll with it and maintain a smile throughout.

I find that being able to laugh at life – and at myself – helps me make the most of every day, whether I’m having a good one or a bad one. It also helps others relax when things get tense. It’s helpful that I tend to see things in a more positive light. After reading some of the patient profiles on our site, it reminds me of how lucky I am. I can stub my toe 10 times during the day and at the same time realize that I am wickedly overdrawn on my bank account and still laugh at myself.

What it boils down to is appreciating what you have – I am so dang lucky to come to work every day and be with the most remarkable people I have ever known.

3.  Give us a slice of life at the office.  What’s a typical day like for you?

I can always try to schedule my day, but it never truly goes according to plan. Today started with a call from someone trying to find our offices – she was driving from Logan Airport and had no experience with Boston drivers. She did eventually make it, although a little beaten up.

The remainder of the day would probably go something like this…first, check in with our amazing 3-Star and PatientsLikeMeInMotion programs for members. While monitoring that, start in on another job, which may entail booking travel for 3-5 employees, setting up a new employee or managing a build out (we have expanded our offices a couple of times). All the while I am answering random but important questions from employees.

At the same time, I try to maintain incoming invoices, scan resumes, work with marketing on our t-shirts, manage employee expenses, bark at people who don’t clean up after themselves, pay our software licenses, mail tax documents, submit expense reports, cancel expense reports, run to the Apple store for supplies, order food for the tired and hungry and, in between it all, try to grab that first cup of coffee.

4.  What would you tell someone who’s considering working at PatientsLikeMe?

We do important work and require 110% every day. You must be on the ball and able to take little direction and run with it – in other words, if you need someone to dictate your every move, this is not the place for you. We work very hard and at times play very hard, but most importantly, we do it together.

Everyone here is on the same team and, believe it or not, there are no cliques.  People genuinely care about each other. I chalk this up to Team Heywood. Lastly, we have a fairly rigorous interview process, but if you make it through and join the company, you will never look back.

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Interested in making a difference in patients’ lives?  Check out our Careers page to see our current job openings.  Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, PatientsLikeMe is looking for a Research Scientist, Senior User Experience Designer, Marketing Associate and more at the moment.

What’s it like to work at PatientsLikeMe?  We’ll be revealing just that with our new blog series “A Day in the Life,” which features various employees from different departments.  To start this new series off with a veteran perspective, we interviewed Research Scientist Mike Massagli, PhD, one of the longest tenured employees of the company.  Find out what changes he’s witnessed since joining PatientsLikeMe in June 2007.

1.   What’s it been like to watch the company evolve over the last four years?

It has been both interesting and gratifying.  Interesting to watch how we evolved from our initial communities – ALS, MS and Parkinson’s, all essentially neurological conditions – to come to grips with other types of chronic disease and to try and achieve a necessary balance between general tools that would be useful to any patient and disease- or condition-specific tools that will be relevant to patients when they are needed.  What has been gratifying is that we have always been able to find people to rise to these challenges.  We’ve found users of PatientsLikeMe very willing to help (and forgiving when things haven’t gone perfectly smoothly), so that we are now in a position to provide all patients with the potential benefits of PatientsLikeMe.

That’s still a work in progress, of course, but the site is getting better all the time.  I am optimistic that we are getting closer to realizing the ultimate power of PatientsLikeMe, which is to fully show the distribution of responses to treatments and help match patients to the part of that distribution that is actually relevant to them.

2.  Talk about PatientsLikeMe’s Journal Club speaker series and why you started it.

The Journal Club is something we started in January 2009 to provide some space and time outside of the routine workflow to discuss (usually) substantive topics relating to PatientsLikeMe.  The goals include:

• giving people who are working on something behind the scenes some visibility and an opportunity for feedback;
• sharing research that has implications for the data we collect or how we collect and present it;
• talking about features in other websites that could have utility in PatientsLikeMe
• sharing information or ideas about how to foster the growth and ‘health’ of online communities; and
• presenting intriguing solutions to seemingly technical problems that may have broader implications for the user experience.

We also bring outside speakers who can inform these areas of discourse.  Everyone at PatientsLikeMe attends and is enthusiastic about learning and critically examining new ideas and issues.

3.  What research projects are you working on at the moment?

At the moment I’m finishing up a couple of projects focusing on the experience of organ transplant patients.  For one of them I examined forum posts about issues related to medication adherence, then combined this with a review of the literature and prior measures of adherence problems to design a survey that will provide information describing patient preferences for possible adherence support mechanisms.  In the other project, a survey is being conducted to test a range of questions about patient quality of life that will hopefully result in a more patient-centered set of questions than currently exists.

In addition to those projects, I’m looking at survey data about six-month changes in the status of fibromyalgia patients and testing how that is associated with the use of PatientsLikeMe.  And I’m working with the team to implement revisions to the Multiple Sclerosis Rating Scale (MSRS).

4.  What do you like best about being part of the PatientsLikeMe team?

Being part of the PatientsLikeMe team is a unique opportunity to build something that has the power to vastly improve medicine.  By capturing patient reports of their experience of care and treatment on a large scale and in real time, we can improve understanding of how treatments work and for whom they work IRL (in real life), and be a source of information for people that simply has not existed before.

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Interested in making a difference in patients’ lives?  Check out our Careers page to see our current job openings.  Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, PatientsLikeMe is looking for a Senior User Experience Designer, Marketing Associate, Research Analyst and more at the moment.

The spotlight is on PatientsLikeMe’s research team this week – and deservedly so.

On Tuesday, Research Director Paul Wicks, PhD, was named “Humanitarian of the Year” and a TR35 Honoree by MIT Technology Review. Now, we are extremely proud to announce that PatientsLikeMe Research Scientist Catherine Brownstein, PhD, MPH, has won a Young Investigator Award from the 12th International Congress of Human Genetics (ICHG).

Held in Montreal, Canada, from October 11-15, 2011, the ICHG is the foremost meeting of the world human genetics community and takes place every five years. The anticipated attendance is 7,000 delegates from over 60 countries around the world. As part of her award, Dr. Brownstein will give a presentation entitled “An internet-based approach to enhance genetic data discovery in ALS” and receive complimentary registration to the five-day conference.

Just how difficult it is to win an ICHG Young Investigator Award? Dr. Brownstein was one of only 64 geneticists selected out of 770 applicants. In addition, her scientific abstract was one of 324 selected for presentation out of 3,932 submitted abstracts. In our book, that puts her in the top 10% of geneticists in the world.

Congratulations to Dr. Brownstein on this prestigious achievement. We look forward to publishing her report from the ICHG on the blog this fall.