For patients with prevalent diseases, it may be easy to find others with your condition.  You meet them at clinics; you run into them when seeing your specialist; or you participate in one of the support groups in your area.  For those with rare diseases, the simple act of finding another patient like you isn’t always as easy.  You might be the only patient your doctor has seen with your condition.  Finding another patient often becomes a goal and sharing and learning from them a welcomed reward.

Alongside NORD and EURORDIS, we are celebrating Rare Disease Day and they’ve deemed this year’s theme “Rare, but Equal.”  At PatientsLikeMe, patients are patients, no matter what their condition.  Patients with rare diseases are sharing their health information alongside patients with more widespread conditions.

So, who do we have sharing information about their rare disease?  To date, more than 455 patients with Multiple System Atrophy and 122 patients with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, both neurodegenerative disorders that mimic Parkinson’s disease, have joined our community.  Do you have Neuromyelitis Optica, the autoimmune inflammatory disorder affecting the spinal cord, optic nerve, that has lesions often misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis?  There are 332 patients just like you.  Sharing right alongside these patients you’ll find 388 patients with Progressive Muscular Atrophy (a rare subtype of ALS which only affects the lower motor neurons) and 331 with Primary Lateral Sclerosis (a subtype of ALS which affects the upper motor neurons).

Many of you also know that we actually started PatientsLikeMe focused on the rare neurodegenerative disease, ALS.  Six years later, there are now more than 4,000 ALS patients-plus almost 20% of the newly diagnosed in the U.S. every month-sharing their journeys and learning from one another.  (You can read about highlighted milestones in our 2010 ALS Awareness Month blog.)  In 2011, we’ll continue our heritage of serving those with rare diseases by improving this overall experience of finding a “patient like me.”

There are no major awareness raising pink ribbons or yellow wristbands for these rare diseases.  But, there is a group of patients who have found each other, who are sharing with one another and the world their disease experience.  And, that will translate to accelerated research and better outcomes – two things we are hoping to make a little less rare.

The launch of a new medication can be a very exciting event.  It can renew hope for a better future and provide proof of the billions spent on research every year.  It can also stimulate a lot of interesting conversation.

Or not.  We’ve learned from you that not every new medication warrants your attention and discussion.  What’s fascinating is learning which ones do and which ones don’t, and why.  We saw a recent example of this on PatientsLikeMe:

(In this chart, the medications are called “A” and “B” so, as we continue to observe and research dialogue about these medications, we will not have influenced you in any way.)

This chart shows the volume of conversation about two new medications that were approved by the FDA to treat the same disease.  We studied the time immediately following FDA approval of each new medication to see whether or not patients were talking about them.  Since the drugs were approved at different points in time, we simply shifted them onto a single timeline for head-to-head comparison.

What a difference!  In the first month following FDA approval, you discussed Drug A 67 times but Drug B only 25 times.  Three months later, the difference grew to 402 discussions about Drug A to only 42 discussions about Drug B.

What caused this difference, and why is it so pronounced?  Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way:

• There was no major event or change on PatientsLikeMe during this time.
• The number of patients on PatientsLikeMe was approximately the same when both new medications were approved.
• PatientsLikeMe was not influencing conversation on either new medication.
• Neither medication was available for use before month 3, long after the two lines in the chart had separated.
• Similarly, the companies that developed these new medications did not begin their marketing efforts before month 3.

What this leaves is the new medications themselves.  There must be something different between Drug A and Drug B – could be side effects, could be efficacy, could be something else entirely – that drove the volume of conversation about Drug A only.  PatientsLikeMe will study this in greater detail to understand and illuminate the factors behind this phenomenon.

Why?  Because researchers need to know what you value in new medications.  By listening to your unmet needs, researchers can develop solutions to unsolved problems caused by your disease.  Wouldn’t that get you talking?

This is just another example among many of how you are selflessly giving back and helping advance medicine on PatientsLikeMe.

The PatientsLikeMe research and development (R&D) team is excited about what we can all share and learn in 2011.  Here’s a look back at some of what patients like you shared with us, and what we then shared with the world, in 2010.

The R&D team published and presented some unprecedented insights based on what you shared with us this year.  In addition to attending and presenting at some noteworthy conferences in 2010, we also published a series of blogs and podcasts pulled together just for you.

Based on your feedback, the R&D team also implemented some changes to the medical architecture that will help improve the research we do, as well as your experience as a patient on the site.  Ultimately, we are working to develop tools that help you answer the question: “Given my status, what is the best outcome I can hope to achieve and how do I get there?”

Today and tomorrow, we’ll be highlighting some of the work we’ve done in 2010 focused on various communities.  Today, we start with the following (listed from newest to oldest community):

Organ Transplants

• Researcher Catherine Brownstein MPH, Ph.D. presented a poster at the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Renal Week in Denver. We compared the profile of our Transplants Community to published data from the UNOS/OPTN databases and found that about half of our patients knew about the exact degree of tissue matching they had with their donor. We found the fewest mismatches in organs that had come from deceased, rather than living donors. We also found that within the living donors the closest matches came from siblings, followed by parents, children, and then any other relative.

Epilepsy

• In December, the team attended the annual American Epilepsy Society (AES) conference and presented a poster comparing our data to the Pharmetrics insurance claims database. We found that our Epilepsy Community is a little more likely to be female, more likely to be in their 20s-40s, and that they are more likely to be taking multiple anti-epileptic drugs than the broader epilepsy population. Exploring the biases in our data set and being transparent about them is one of our core values as a science team.
• PatientsLikeMe is running an ongoing patient-reported outcomes (PRO) study with UCB to measure the physical, social and mental well-being of people with epilepsy over time. By the end of 2010, members of our Epilepsy Community had completed more than 1,300 PRO surveys. Thanks to all of you who contributed.

Fibromyalgia

• The R&D team recently blogged about a report comparing our Fibromyalgia Community to the wider fibromyalgia population and revealed we are now able to declare with confidence that our community very closely matches the fibromyalgia community at large.
• In 2010, we published a study entitled “Sharing Health Data for Better Outcomes on PatientsLikeMe” in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR). The study, conducted across several of our communities, established a link between sharing health data and benefits experienced on our site. The fibromyalgia-specific findings were that 21% of fibromyalgia members of our site strongly agreed or agreed that they had changed physicians as a result of using PatientsLikeMe, higher than the rate in MS (15%), mood (10%), Parkinson’s (9%), HIV (8%), or ALS (6%).
• In response to popular demand for more research in fibromyalgia, the R&D team has also started reaching out to members of the scientific community to design research studies to take place in early 2011.

Mood

• Looking again at the JMIR study specifically within the Mood Community, we found 26% of users agreed or strongly agreed that using the site had reduced thoughts about self harm; 23% agreed they had decided to start therapy or counseling after interacting with others on the site; and 22% agreed they needed less inpatient care as a result of using PatientsLikeMe.  Here’s a video where I present some of these results, and give a walk-through of the Mood Community, at the UMASS Medical School’s Psychiatry Grand Rounds this year.
• We also recently introduced a new tool in all of our communities called “InstantMe” to help you put your experiences in context.  Based on the feedback we received from members of our mood community about the pilot tool (called “InstantMood”), it is now available for everybody.
• In response to popular demand for more research in mood, the R&D team has also started reaching out to members of the scientific community to design research studies to take place in early 2011.

More highlights, including a video, coming tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for a great 2010.  As we kick off the New Year, PatientsLikeMe would like to take a quick look back at the road we’ve traveled together this year.  We think of all these improvements as laying the groundwork for even more exciting changes to come in 2011.

At the start of 2010, we set out to tackle two very important goals that could help you, our members, get the best possible experience out of PatientsLikeMe:  1) unify the way we collect medical information and 2) give more information back to you so you can see how you fit in and compare your experiences with others.  Kate Brigham recently talked about some of the improvements we’ve made on the second goal in her Share and Compare post, but I’d like to share a bit more about the first goal.

Our communities have a lot in common despite their different conditions and health concerns.  As Tommy Maker said in a recent newsletter interview, “I’ve learned that we all care enormously for each other and are very eager to help those who find themselves in the same boat as we are.  But most of all I’ve learned that I am not on my own.”

“We are all in this together” is the sentiment we hear from you time and time again.  In that spirit, we made a lot of changes to unify your experiences across all our communities.  Many of these improvements started in one community where some of you tried functionality and gave us good feedback so we could improve things and share them with all patients.  With the rollout of every product development below, you can now better share and compare your experiences.

Here are some examples of ways our communities have helped each other learn and grow in 2010:

• Flash charts: We piloted these in the ALS community last January and received a lot of great feedback.  Since that successful pilot, we converted the profile charts in all our communities to these more flexible and easier to understand charts.  This change also enabled future enhancements, like re-organizing your profile and better Doctor Visit Sheets.

• Condition History: While many of the questions you answer on PatientsLikeMe are very specific to your medical condition, there are a lot of questions that apply to any and all patients.  When did your symptoms start?  Do you have a diagnosis?  Are you taking any treatments?  Now members across communities answer many of the same questions in the condition history so everyone can share and see how their answers compare with the rest of the community.

• InstantMe: This idea of asking you a quick question about how you are doing started out as InstantMood, and was available only to members of the mood community.  They gave us great feedback and helped us to improve it (especially adding a “neutral” answer choice) before we rolled it out to patients in all our communities in November.  It’s now called InstantMe.

• Quality Of Life: The quality of life survey we just made available to all members at the end of December was piloted in the HIV and Organ Transplants communities.  By having a way to measure your social, mental and physical well-being, now you can gain a better understanding of how your condition affects you – the whole you.

Thank you to all the members of our community who continue to share and learn along with us.  Watch this year in review video to see how you all have contributed to making the patient experience on PatientsLikeMe one of a kind.

Last week, we posted highlights from our December community newsletter interviews. As we close out 2010, we want to spotlight another question asked this month – one that is relative to all members, all patients (no matter the condition).  What obstacles have you faced and overcome this year?

To review all of our newsletters, you can visit our archives page here.

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	(Amy) What obstacles have you overcome this year?
	(ellieGADsufferer – Mood Conditions Community) First of all, I became well enough to leave my local psychiatric hospital after having been an inpatient for six months. My anxiety means that all new things – even getting on a bus to go somewhere new – make me have severe panic symptoms. I now make sure I am out of bed by 0700hrs during the week and make myself go out at least three times per week, whether it is meeting friends for coffee or attending appointments. Otherwise I will return to “avoidance,” whereby I cut off all contact with friends and family, including calls and text messages.
	(kidneygirl1198and0505 – Transplants Community) I have had to deal with and overcome the struggles that come with tardive dyskinesia. Reglan has been black-boxed [with a FDA-mandated warning about the risk of tardive dyskinesia] over the past two years, but I took it for three or four years before that. [Read kidneygirl1198and0505's Reglan treatment evaluation for more details.] Signs of tardive dyskinesia may include: continuous and repetitive movements of the mouth, tongue, and jaw; facial grimacing; lip smacking, puffing of the cheeks; uncontrollable movements of the arms, legs, fingers, and toes; and swaying motions of the trunk or hips. Mine has gotten so bad that I have regular grand mal seizures from time to time, and sometimes it’s hard to carry on a conversation without looking weird.
	(mountain lady – Parkinson’s Disease Community) One of the biggest obstacles in my life this year was getting over the death of a very close friend.  This person became ill and died within a few months.  Her death made me more aware of how precious life is. Another obstacle was in the adjustment of my medicine for Parkinson’s.  My doctor wanted me to try a new medicine with fewer long-term side effects.  I tried it for several months but did not do very well.  I am currently back on my original medicine, taking a little more than before, but I have readjusted well.
	(andrewn78 – HIV Community) This year I overcame a hard breakup. It was difficult because I thought we were going to be together for a longer term relationship than we were (only nine months). It was also difficult to start dating again. I forgot how many people don’t know much about how HIV is contracted and that there are many people who would never date someone who is living with HIV or will date someone living with HIV but the fear of contracting HIV puts too much of a damper on the relationship. It’s a difficult process.
	(Tommy Maker – ALS Community) I’ve spent a lot of time this year getting used to the fact that I have become dependent on others. Prior to diagnosis, I sat on the local council, was involved in the organization of all types of public elections and I was a trade union official. These were voluntary roles which involved helping others. Yet, initially, after diagnosis, I had an enormous difficulty accepting help from others. However, I’ve come to realize that I have a loving family, fantastic friends and very supportive colleagues. I have found that many of them don’t know what to do and are very glad when I am specific as to what they can do for me. I’ve also learned that no question is too personal. I struggled a lot with questions about personal hygiene and when I found the courage to ask these most intimate questions, I found that the professionals were so familiar with the questions asked that, beyond the initial embarrassment, we quickly went on to find solutions. I have also found that when people ask questions about my condition, they are entitled to an answer, an honest answer.
	(Nates-Sweetpea – Fibromyalgia/CFS Community) Oh my, 2010 has been a huge year! I didn’t know how I was going to get through it whole, but here I am knocking on 2011, one step at a time. I had to rejoin the workforce on a part-time basis this year, after years of not working (not being able to work), but I had to as my husband had lost his job about 18 months previously, and we were facing bankruptcy! So I’ve been working part-time since last February, about 17 to 32 hours a week. We did go through bankruptcy, lost our home, vehicles and our high 700′s credit score with it. But you know what, I survived.  Actually, no, I overcame, with the help of a very supportive Sunday School class, great friends, and a wonderful husband and daughter.
	(kg10043 – Epilepsy Community) I work for the US Forest Service and, as of July, made it to retirement age still working. Two times they tried to force me to take a disability retirement. To keep working I have had to move around to several jobs in four different states because of my health. Not only have I made it to retirement age, but I am still working even though they are trying to get rid of me once again. (What a joke when you consider that the federal government has a quota for disabled employees). It has meant I have not only had to work in a variety of locations, but doing different kinds of work. Just in the time on this forest I have worked as the Oracle DBA in the computer shop, in GIS, later in Forest Planning, with a crew of five Soil Scientists, a Botanist and myself mapping the soils and ecological types and writing recommendations for management.  And now for the last two years I have been “unfunded” and doing all kinds of random jobs for projects in the office. Just this year that has included supporting the USFS in legal challenges as well as jobs so simple as filing paperwork and addressing envelopes.
	(cobebu8 – MS Community) For me, with multiple sclerosis and ADHD, my main problems have been the concentration to do what I need and want to do and fighting the progression of MS. I have RRMS [relapsing remitting MS] but since I have had it for 25 years, ever so slowly, it is progressing at the same time I get exacerbations. I have a new neurologist too, and he is part of a big group and getting through when I am having problems, is a problem. Plus, with only SSDI [social security disability insurance] and not being able to find a part-time job, I have had to stop taking some needed meds and not going to necessary doctor’s appointments (e.g. my eye surgeon/doctor to see if the optic nerve is still swollen and I can’t do a necessary MRI because the insurance company won’t pay.) So to get help for my asthma, I am doing a research study to get free care. I haven’t found one for MS or depression yet.

In December community newsletters (launched earlier this week), we asked some of our members to think about what they’ve shared and compared in 2010.  Below are highlighted answers from each interviewee across all nine community newsletters.  Thank you for your contributions.

We also want to thank all of you who have contributed to the 90 newsletters we ran this year, including the newly launched ones in our Epilepsy and Transplants communities.  Finally, a special thanks goes out to our newsletter writer, Amy Morton, for pulling these together every month.

To review all of our newsletters, you can visit our archives page here.

* * *

	(Amy) How has PatientsLikeMe helped you learn and share this year?
	(Tommy Maker – ALS Community) PatientsLikeMe has provided me with new friends-people who are experiencing the same problems as I am. I’ve learned that there isn’t a single question that won’t get a vast myriad of answers from the community. I’ve learned that we’re all very different people, and I’ve learned we don’t always agree.  I’ve learned that we all care enormously for each other and are very eager to help those who find themselves in the same boat as we are. But most of all I’ve learned that I am not on my own.  I’m not the only one facing a bleak future and not the only one who is able to appreciate what he has at the moment.
	(cobebu8 – MS Community) I really like it here in that I can keep track of all my meds with their side effects, etc.  Plus I like it that I can list symptoms and have a history of all of it to review and learn from and share with my doctors. I hope that my input on meds, therapies, etc., helps other people. It is good not to be alone.
	(mountain lady – Parkinson’s Disease Community) It has given me the experience of reading about others who are in situations similar to mine.  It has shown me that I am not alone.  I love reading the newsletters and the comments from other readers. It also helps to keep me up-to-date on any new suggestions or treatments. Also, I became acquainted with someone online through PatientsLikeMe.  We actually live in the same town, both work in the field of Education and have had Parkinson’s for the same length of time.  Getting together with her was a pleasure, and she introduced me to the idea of meeting with a support group, which I had never done before.
	(ellieGADsufferer – Mood Conditions Community) It is invaluable. I find the Symptoms and Treatments areas so helpful. I have learned (from genuine people who are taking these meds) that some of my “quirky” side effects and sufferings from the meds I take can and do happen to others and are not imaginary.  (My general practitioner and Consultant just brush the list aside and shrug their shoulders). I have learned that I am not alone with my illnesses, which is good to know, and I have also learned that there is “light at the end of the tunnel.”  I try to keep my profile as up to date as possible in the hope that it will be helpful to at least one or two members. I rate my Daily Mood [now called InstantMe] at least five days per week and always complete my Mood Map, again for the same reasons. Well done PatientsLikeMe and its members. Keep going, you are doing really good work and long may it continue.
	(andrewn78 – HIV Community) I love organization and having PatientsLikeMe help me to organize all of my medical information. I would like to have an ability to log simple notes on the PatientsLikeMe profile so every time I go to my doctor I can make some general notes (if needed) for that visit on my experience and what was covered with my provider. (Note that all users can now use InstantMe to add notes/annotations to your Doctor Visit Sheet)
	(Nates-Sweetpea – Fibromyalgia/CFS Community) PatientsLikeMe has been such an encouragement to me, not only in what others have given to me through sharing their stories, but also by opening up a window for me to be an encourager also. I love the newsletters that are super reminders of how to not get off track, and also how to be good to myself.
	(kg10043 – Epilepsy Community) I think I have been pretty good at sharing, but this has been one new method, especially with some of the health issues with others facing similar situations. In the past I have answered questions for people who had their first seizure or just questions, but with this site, I am able to communicate with others who have had the same operations, take the same medications, etc., and really understand things better (from a different perspective).
	(kidneygirl1198and0505 – Transplants Community) PatientsLikeMe has helped me so incredibly much!  I’ve made so many friends that I thank God for every day.  It’s just like, no matter what you have or haven’t had transplanted, whichever organ you need or have, everyone on here understands you and what you’re going through. I just really hope that people can say that about me.  It took me awhile, but no one is alone out there.  Everyone is going through their own personal struggles.  I just want everyone to know I am all ears!

Our recent series entitled Share and Compare focused on how patients like you can better answer the question, “How do I put my experience in context?” The answer, in part, comes from how much information you share to help create that context of real-world patient experiences.  Think of it this way – with every piece of information you share, you are contributing directly to research.

When we’re conducting research, one of the things we look at is how similar or different you are to the populations at large.  We even have minimum criteria for a person’s data to be usable.  For example, if you indicate whether you’re male or female, you make it that much easier in determining how you “fit in.”  That one piece of information helps us know if our population is in fact representative of a disease, or whether we’re only getting one specific type of patient (e.g., males with fibromyalgia who don’t have much pain).  If we do get more of one type of patient, it becomes more difficult to draw any conclusions from that population and apply them to the general public.

So, you may be wondering why we need to compare to the published literature/general public?  Why can’t we just say that our conclusions apply to our users and leave it at that? The answer to this question has many parts:

1. We have the ability to positively impact everyone with disease, not just our current members.  Ideally, we will apply knowledge gained through research in our communities to all people living with diseases.
2. From a research perspective, we have to know our biases, and how to correct for them if possible. For example, we tend to have more women than men in our populations.  By knowing that, we can “correct” for it in our analyses by making sure our proportions are correct when we look at a sample of users.
3. We can know how our discoveries fit in with other information known about a disease.  For example, let’s say we figure out that patients who have had fibromyalgia for 15+ years improve their quality of life by doing Treatment X.  If we don’t know how many patients have had fibromyalgia for 15 years or how many do Treatment X and don’t improve, the discovery loses some of its power from lack of context.  Perhaps it isn’t a discovery at all!  However, if we have data from our community to answer those questions and can compare it to published literature, we can trust more in our discoveries.

Here’s a great example of what can happen with the data you share.  Recently, we evaluated our fibromyalgia community characteristics with the Demographics Survey sent out early in 2010.  For some of our communities, the survey had fantastic results.  We are now able to declare with confidence that our community very closely matches the fibromyalgia community at large (Table 1).

By maintaining your profiles and keeping accurate records of side effects, medications, background information, and outcomes (such as quality of life), you are participating in groundbreaking research that is already yielding fantastic results. Our research team has presented at prestigious conferences and written dozens of abstracts and papers. Working together, PatientsLikeMe has discovered new symptoms and compared treatment efficacy; we are also working towards creating an accurate picture of how medications work in the real world so you get the right treatment for you. This is just beginning.

This week on our blog, we’ve been highlighting how patients like you are putting their experiences in context.  With the launch of InstantMe and some of the design updates you read about, you can see we’re listening to your call for more functionality that lets you understand how your condition affects the whole you.

Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO) questionnaires are a great tool to illuminate the physical, mental, and social dimensions of your overall health. In fact, PROs are increasingly used in clinical trials, and in December 2009 the FDA approved the use of PROs to support product claims. Best of all, PROs are free of clinical interpretation, which empowers you, the patient, to have your voice heard in the real world.

PatientsLikeMe is an unparalleled platform for electronic PROs, which have a few advantages over traditional pen-and-paper ones, such as:

• Patients are more likely to share and share truthfully using electronic interfaces;
• Researchers have real-time access to the data;
• Electronic PROs enable alerts for specific concerns (such as adverse side effects), ensuring better safety for all patients (1).

Early on in our partnership, our colleagues at the biopharmaceutical company UCB proposed a longitudinal PRO survey: members of our Epilepsy Community would have access to surveys that reveal the effect of their condition on everyday life over distinct periods. That’s right — you could see your progress over time! Together with UCB,  we decided to take the concept of an electronic PRO one step further: not only would you be able better understand your own experience with epilepsy, but you would also be able to put it in context. When you complete a PRO survey, you’ll see that you can compare your results to the larger Epilepsy Community!

Figure 1

Figure 2

Such commitment to patient health reveals two interesting things about UCB: First, patients really do come first; and secondly, UCB is committed to understanding how their products work in the real world, and not just in clinical trials. It is not easy to take a leadership position in an innovative arena such as this, and we are proud to partner with such a company.

As of today, members of our Epilepsy Community have completed more than 1,300 PRO surveys. By the end of 2010, many of you will have contributed to the largest patient-led study ever in epilepsy.

Are you in on what our communities already know?  Share…and then compare. If you understand your condition in the broader context, you’ll be a PRO too.

1. Dupont et al. “Use of Tablet Personal Computers for Sensitive Patient-Reported Information.”  Journal of Supportive Oncology. Volume 7, Number 3. May/June 2009.

As we round out our “Share and Compare” week, here are a few quotes that some of our members have shared regarding the impact of being able to see where you fit in.

You’ll read in the quotes how patients like you can find solace in the fact that there are others out there experiencing the same thing;  you’ll see how your sharing is helping others make sense of their treatment dosages; and you’ll feel through these quotes how personal sharing can be within a community like ours.  Behind all the graphs and charts we’ve shared this week are people – here’s what they have to say.

Stay tuned next week for a few follow-up pieces on Share and Compare, as well as a new topic series.  Have you learned from sharing and comparing?  Add a comment below, post in the forum or connect with us through private message inside the site.

- – -

“It’s so nice to share information with others who are experiencing the same thing. The most frustrating thing I remember as a teenager was when doctors couldn’t explain exactly what was happening to me or why. I used to feel as if I did something wrong and that’s why I was ‘different’. The more information we can share with each other, the better.”
- Epilepsy community member

“I feel like a breath of fresh air of hope; just knowing I’m not alone and there are others who experience side effects, have good and bad days even experience combination seizures.”
- Epilepsy community member

“[It] really puts my mind at ease and sounds like my [treatment] dosage is not that unusual this soon after my transplant. I look forward to eventually taking it down.”
- Transplant community member

“I am so thankful [to have] found this site…where I can, after a fashion, talk and identify with others on the PD bus. We understand. We are similarly bound.”
- Parkinson’s community member

“…just being able to see so many people that are going through the same thing I am (literally sorted by [treatment] and [diagnosis]) – makes it feel just a little bit more in control for me.”
- Fibromyalgia community member

“I want to know if what I’m going through is normal for a patient like me.” This is a sentiment we’ve heard from so many of you throughout our communities.  This week, we’re focusing our blog on some of the ways we’re trying to help you put your experiences in context.  It’s a concept we like to call “share and compare.”

From a design standpoint, we’ve been focusing on how to help you see how your status relates to other patients with the same condition.  By showing where you fit within a larger group, you can begin to see if your experiences are typical.  The more data you share, the more you can compare your experience to others.

Here are some of the changes we’ve made this year along these lines, as well as the benefits to patients like you:

1. Treatment pages: Now you can view the most commonly prescribed treatments for your condition and see where you fit in with the treatments you’re taking.  Want to see if the dosage you’re on is in line with others?  Now, you can.  (You can also use this to discuss dosage questions with your doctor)



2. Individual treatment reports: When you view a report for an individual treatment, you can get some additional context, including how your reasons taken, side effects and dosages relate to those reported by other patients.  Again, it’s a great way to see if your side effects or dosages are typical, and then use this information in your discussions with your healthcare team.



3. Condition history: When you answer questions in the condition history section of your profile, you can now see how you compare to the larger community based those items, including diagnosis status, age at diagnosis, condition type, family history and more.  Are there a lot of other newly diagnosed patients like you?  Maybe there are a lot more people with many years of experience with your condition to whom you can reach out to for support.  All of this data helps you compare your experiences with those of the larger community.

Over the next few days, we’ll continue to highlight how patients like you are putting their experiences in context and what value they’re getting from being able to compare it with others.  Sign up for an email alert of new blogs or just stay tuned right here!

Here at PatientsLikeMe we strive to give you the tools and functionalities you want and need to gain insights into your conditions, including putting your experiences in context.  Today, we’re introducing a new tool in all of our communities called “InstantMe.”  Want to chart how you’re feeling day in and day out?  Now you can.

All you need to do for InstantMe is answer this simple question – How are you feeling now?  You can answer this question as many times in a day or week as you’d like. InstantMe will appear on your profile to add more context to the other experiences you share there, as well as on your Doctor Visit Sheets so you can communicate more effectively about how treatment changes have impacted the whole you.  You can even sign up for a reminder and answer InstantMe right over email.

Why InstantMe?  Many of you already use the measurement tools we have in place to put your experiences in context  - for example, there’s the mood map, quality of life scale, or clinical rating scales (e.g., ALS functional rating scale). These instruments (which you typically fill out weekly or monthly) measure the severity and impact of medical conditions on your life.  But what about all the fluctuations that all of us experience day-to-day or even throughout one day? Maybe they’re due to our health, our treatments, or perhaps something totally unrelated, like holiday planning or work.

For a couple of years, mood community members have been using a tool called “InstantMood.”  They answer one simple question (“How would you rate your mood right now?”) and then choose an answer (“Very good,” “Good,” “Neutral,” “Bad,” or “Very bad.”)  Members can even add a short note (140 characters) to each rating to remind them what was happening at that time. It’s a popular functionality and helps members put context around changes in their overall condition.  Here are some trends members can watch with InstantMood:

What we’ve seen and heard from the Mood community is that this ability to “instantly” rate how they’re feeling is useful at both the individual and community level.  As a user, you give a little something and get instant feedback.  We like that concept.  In fact, you’ll be hearing a lot more about it in the blogs to follow this week, so stay tuned.

With this in mind, we’re excited to roll out InstantMe for all of our communities (thanks in part to what we learned from Mood).  Because we know there are more things that can influence how you feel than mood alone and we believe it’s important to have measurements that get at your whole well-being, we have changed the question slightly.

It’s a simple question, but probably one of the most important ones to ask you.  So tell us – How are you feeling now?