People Living With Chronic Conditions Encouraged to Donate Health Data for 24 Days
November 29, 2016 – CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Beginning today on #GivingTuesday, PatientsLikeMe is kicking off its third-annual #24DaysofGiving to celebrate “the tradition of generosity.” Over the next 24 days, PatientsLikeMe is asking members to rally together, rethink what it means to give back and donate their health data on PatientsLikeMe.com after donating to their favorite charity or nonprofit. PatientsLikeMe is giving back, as well. During 24 Days of Giving, the company will once again showcase important research that has benefited from patient data in the last year. For every piece of health data shared during 24 Days of Giving, PatientsLikeMe will make a donation to Make-A-Wish® Massachusetts and Rhode Island, up to $25,000, to help fund life-affirming wishes for seriously ill children.
Since it first launched in 2014, PatientsLikeMe members have donated nearly one million data points about their health during 24 Days of Giving, including 60,000 treatment reports, 218,000 symptom reports and 269,000 health outcomes reports. As a result, over the last two years, a total of $40,000 has been donated to Make-A-Wish Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Through these donations, four wishes have been granted to children in the Massachusetts-Rhode Island area.
PatientsLikeMe is a patient network that aggregates the health data members share so that others can learn more about how to improve their outcomes and contribute data for research. Health data includes information about a disease or condition – how people live with it, what their doctors are doing to treat it, and what it’s like to navigate their health journey. PatientsLikeMe analyzes the donated data to spot trends in specific diseases and works with partners to incorporate patient-reported evidence in their research. Partners can then create new products and services that are more in tune with what patients experience and need.
“Over the past two years of 24 Days of Giving, new and existing members have generously donated their health data for good – whether through their treatment evaluations, symptom reports or other health updates,” said Michael Evers, PatientsLikeMe’s Executive Vice President of Marketing, Technology and Operations. “We hope people will join us again this year, because the data they share on PatientsLikeMe during 24 Days of Giving – and every day beyond – gives others the best information to make more informed health decisions, and could change someone’s life for the better.”
“24 Days of Giving” will be active across PatientsLikeMe’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram social media channels through December (#24DaysofGiving). Anyone who is living with a chronic condition can create a profile on PatientsLikeMe and start tracking their symptoms, treatments and quality of life for free. Existing members are encouraged to keep their profiles up-to-date or complete a new treatment evaluation. To learn more, go to www.patientslikeme.com.
About PatientsLikeMe
PatientsLikeMe is a patient network that improves lives and a real-time research platform that advances medicine. Through the network, patients connect with others who have the same disease or condition and track and share their own experiences. In the process, they generate data about the real-world nature of disease that help researchers, pharmaceutical companies, regulators, providers and nonprofits develop more effective products, services and care. With more than 400,000 members, PatientsLikeMe is a trusted source for real-world disease information and a clinically robust resource that has published more than 80 research studies. Visit us at www.patientslikeme.com or follow us via our blog, Twitter or Facebook.
About Make-A-Wish® Massachusetts and Rhode Island
Make-A-Wish® Massachusetts and Rhode Island grants wishes for children between the ages of 2½ and 18 years of age with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy. For a child with a life-threatening illness, a wish fulfilled provides profound joy and lasting hope to keep fighting and dreaming for the future. In its 29-year history, the organization has granted more than 7,500 wishes for children in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Visit Make-A-Wish Massachusetts and Rhode Island at www.massri.wish.org for more information, to make a donation, or to learn about volunteer opportunities. Find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/MassRIWish, Twitter at Twitter.com/MakeAWishMassRI and Instagram at Instagram.com/MakeAWishMARI.
Contact
Katherine Bragg
kbragg@patientslikeme.com
617-548-1375
