Who's #2 in Healthcare Innovation? You guessed it

It’s been an exciting few months for PatientsLikeMe. Here’s a quick recap…

Today, Fast Company released its annual ranking of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World. PatientsLikeMe made #23 on the list alongside big league companies like Facebook, Disney, Novartis and Amazon. PatientsLikeMe was also named the second most innovative company in healthcare, behind powerhouse General Electric (GE). Read our news release about it here and the magazine article featuring one of our MS patients. To commemorate this honor, we’ve interviewed our President and Co-founder, Ben Heywood, in our first-ever PatientsLikeMe podcast (hosted by our own Aaron Fleishman). Listen in!

Speaking of innovation, what do Bill Gates, Al Gore, Steven Hawking, Goldie Hawn, David Blaine and PatientsLikeMe Co-founder Jamie Heywood have in common? All of these innovators have graced the stage at a TED event. A nonprofit that brings together innovative people from “Technology, Entertainment and Design,” TED’s mission is to simply spread ideas. Isn’t that another way of saying “share?” We do love that concept. Here’s Jamie at TEDMED (the healthcare-focused TED event) sharing our vision on the future of medicine in his presentation, “The Big Idea My Brother Inspired.”

Finally, we’d like to give a shout out to some of people who have interviewed us since the start of 2010. In the February 8th issue of TIME magazine (“Group Therapy”), reporter Bonnie Rochman caught up with Jamie to get his perspective on the power of online patient communities. Later that same week, Ben Heywood sat down with Staci and Steve from WAAM’s My Great Kid Radio show to discuss sharing, openness and the remarkable power of technology. He also spoke with Ryan McBride from Xconomy about the growth of PatientsLikeMe as a business, so be sure to check it out. Lastly, we just posted a blog interview with reporter and author Thomas Goetz regarding his newly released book, “The Decision Tree” (featuring PatientsLikeMe and our community members).

Stay tuned for more 2010 interviews, announcements, and podcasts right here on our blog.