Share and Compare: How are you feeling? Find out with InstantMe!

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.”  screen-shot-2010-12-01-at-91856-am1Want 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:

Instant mood trends by day of the week Instant mood trends by time of day

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?

PatientsLikeMe member pwicks

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12 thoughts on “Share and Compare: How are you feeling? Find out with InstantMe!”

  1. Pingback: The Value of Openness: The PatientsLikeMe Blog » Share and Compare Your Health Experience

  2. How can I add a date to InstantMe History?

    And how can I read the mood charts? I understand what the colors represent, it is not clear to me how the per-centages are assigned to each mood.

    Thanks

  3. Pingback: The Value of Openness: The PatientsLikeMe Blog » Share and Compare: Be a PRO! Understand Your Experiences in Context

  4. This is my first time to make a comment. I find that mornings are my most difficult time. On my worst days, I feel tired, depressed, generally achy as well as having a headache & no energy. By two or three o”clock in the afternoon, I gradually start feeling better. I rest but try not to sleep because it disturbs my sleep at night. I am having a difficult time getting ready for Christmas!

  5. Pingback: The Value of Openness: The PatientsLikeMe Blog » Sharing and Learning with PatientsLikeMe

  6. I am feeling tired not just physically but of feeling tired. I am in pain but I think and hope my outlook is improving. I must admit sometimes I just feel like giving up and saying this is it, deal with it. But I am a warrior and I will not let this defeat me. Was that TMI?

  7. Pingback: The Value of Openness: The PatientsLikeMe Blog » Share and Compare: What Have You Learned with InstantMe?

  8. What about those of us (like me) who are not quantifiers? I respect the value of that process but rarely can I carry it thru! At one time I felt a bit lacking /cause I didn’t, but I can also identify the value in my way. What about the quantifiers presenting us, the non Qs with a way that can work for us? Do you suppose a format devised by a Q could be followed by a non- Q ? If there is any interest/value in comparing the two I would be willing to write about us!!!

  9. Just noticed that the comments prior to mine re some what ancient history. Should I have responded elsewhere?

  10. Hi Joyce,

    Since this blog post, we’ve introduced more ways for ‘non-quantifiers’ to monitor their health. We’ve added a journal section where people can share what’s happening with them and others can follow along and chime in. As always, we also have the forum, which is a great place to catch up with others and swap tips in a more qualitative way. Speaking of, this would be a great new forum topic! Want to come start a discussion in our forum about this? I suspect you’ll get more visibility there and I’d love to see the conversation continue.

    Best wishes,
    Liz

  11. wait – there is a journal? where is it?

    I’ve been adopting InstantMe as my journal.

    I like the idea of an InstantMe update being the size of a tweet & optionally adding (or associating) a freeform journal entry.

    for those of us who wish to be transparent – my 140 char update could get tweeted & my journal entry could be cross-posted to a blog. the sub-140 char update could double as the default “subject” for the entry as well!

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