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PatientsLikeMe and M2Gen Announce Partnership and Plans for Landmark Cancer Experience Study

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  CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & TAMPA, Fla., March 8, 2016—Patient network PatientsLikeMe® and informatics solutions provider M2Gen® are collaborating to give patients and researchers a more complete picture of patients’ experiences with cancer treatments and to shed new light on the factors that may affect outcomes and quality of life. The partnership aims to advance cancer research by combining real-world, patient-reported outcomes shared by members of PatientsLikeMe with the molecular and clinical data shared by patients enrolled in the Total Cancer Care® program at Moffitt Cancer Center and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James). The combined dataset will give researchers a broader, longitudinal view of the many factors that affect patient outcomes. The collaboration’s initial study is expected to kick off within the next several months and to focus on lung cancer. Researchers will analyze and explore the typically distinct forms of data to generate new insights into the patient experience and value of treatment plans for those undergoing care. The study is funded by PatientsLikeMe partners AstraZeneca and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. “As we continue to expand our real-world measurement system, …

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Your data doing good: The Lithium study

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During #24DaysofGiving this December, we’re highlighting all the good your health data donations are doing. And this time, we’re starting at the beginning.  As you probably know already, PatientsLikeMe launched its first community in 2006 for people living with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Two years later, we had an amazingly engaged and research-focused community who were willing to share data to change what the world knows about ALS. This neurodegenerative condition is fatal and takes away people’s ability to walk, speak, use their arms, and eventually breathe. This is exactly what happened to our founders’ brother, Stephen. So, in 2008, when the results of an Italian clinical trial were published in a highly respected scientific journal saying that the use of lithium carbonate could slow the progression of ALS, we had a member community that was hungry to learn more. Spearheaded by two very involved members – a Brazilian ALS patient named Humberto and a caregiver in the US named Karen – we set out on a journey to collect and analyze thousands of patients’ real-world data to understand how lithium carbonate was working beyond the clinical trial setting. The result was unexpected and unmatched in the …

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Your data doing good: A collaboration with Walgreens

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During #24DaysofGiving this December, we’re highlighting all the good your health data is doing within – and well beyond – the PatientsLikeMe website. Here’s another great example. Did you know the side effect data you report on your PatientsLikeMe treatment evaluations is helping pharmacy customers understand how the medications they take may affect them, too? It started back in February this year when we kicked off a new collaboration with Walgreens, the nation’s largest drugstore chain. The idea was simple; by joining forces, we could help bring your experiences to many more people making treatment decisions. Now anyone researching a medication or filling a prescription on Walgreens.com can see a snapshot of how PatientsLikeMe members have been impacted by that medication, including side effects and their severity. There are currently about 6,000 medications at Walgreens pharmacies where others can learn from your experiences, and the data (de-identified!) is updated daily based on what you report on PatientsLikeMe. This partnership marks the first time a company has displayed your real-world data on their website. Why did they do it? Because your data and experiences can help patients, wherever they are, understand more about the treatments they’re taking, and make more informed …

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RWJF Awards Grant to PatientsLikeMe to Develop New Measures for Healthcare Performance

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Patient Network to Work with the National Quality Forum to Ensure Patients Drive Healthcare Value   CAMBRIDGE, MA., December 8, 2015—PatientsLikeMe has been awarded a $900,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to help jumpstart changes that will amplify the patient voice in the measurement of healthcare performance. A portion of the grant funds a collaboration between PatientsLikeMe and the National Quality Forum (NQF) to develop, test and facilitate the broader use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) to assess patient-reported health status. While PROMs have been used in clinical research, they are rarely used in routine clinical care to assess provider performance. In such settings, performance is primarily assessed by what was done to the patient (using process measures) and what happened to the patient (using clinical outcome measures), but not always by what may be most important to the patient. The grant comes as value-based purchasing is gaining ground in both the public and private sectors, with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) setting aggressive targets for linking performance related to quality, value and patient-centered care to payment. “Measuring what is relevant, useful and actionable for patients has never been more important,” said PatientsLikeMe Co-founder and …

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Getting “Patients Included” right Part II: Planning a patient-centric event

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You may remember Part I of this blog that focused on the experiences of two PatientsLikeMe members who attended the Kidney Health Initiative’s (KHI) workshop, “Understanding patients’ preferences: Stimulating medical device development in kidney disease,” back in August. KHI is a partnership between the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Society of Nephrology (ASN). We recently spoke with patient Celeste Lee and Frank Hurst, MD, Medical Officer, Renal Devices Branch with the FDA, about the planning and consideration it took to make this event “Patients Included.” While this was the first patient-centric event KHI has held, they’ve worked to include the patient voice in all aspects of the initiative. Kidney patients and kidney patient organizations are represented on the KHI Board of Directors, and this past year the KHI Board of Directors formed a KHI Patient and Family Partnership Council (PFPC) made up of only patients and their caregivers. The PFPC helps provide strategic guidance on how to engage and include patients, their families and care partners in KHI activities. Celeste has had kidney failure from an autoimmune disease since she was 17. She’s been an advocate for decades and is now focused on patient-centered care. Celeste …

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Getting “Patients Included” right Part I: Two members attend a Kidney Health Initiative workshop

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Back in August, the Kidney Health Initiative (KHI), a partnership between the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), held a workshop called “Understanding patients’ preferences: Stimulating medical device development in kidney disease.” But this was more than a workshop – it was an event centered around the idea of “Patients Included” – a movement started back in May to involve more patients on the planning committees, stages, and in the audiences of medical conferences. Sally Okun, our Vice President of Advocacy, Policy and Patient Safety spoke at the event and notes how patient-focused the entire workshop was in that “nearly 100 people among the approximately 150 who gathered for the event were patients living with and managing kidney disease every day, many joined by their caregivers.” “The patients were very open in the discussions and direct in their questions. Many talked about their experiences with hemodialysis and how difficult it is to live a normal life when one has to be at the dialysis center three days a week for many hours,” she says. “In contrast to the conventional treatment approach, the newer developments for hemodialysis at home were very interesting, and in …

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PatientsLikeMe Names 2015-2016 Team of Advisors, Sets Focus on Redefining Patient Partnerships

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Cambridge, MA, October 19, 2015—PatientsLikeMe has named 14 members to its patient-only 2015–2016 Team of Advisors and challenged them to work through an issue that’s central to everyone in the healthcare system: how to redefine patient partnerships. The team will be focused on rethinking what it means for patients to be partners, and on establishing new ways for the healthcare industry to connect with patients to deliver better care. PatientsLikeMe CEO Martin Coulter said that in an era when patients must be front and center in healthcare discovery and development, the group’s mission is vital to every patient, pharmaceutical company, regulator, payor and provider. “This advisory team includes some of the strongest patient advocates we have ever met. Their experience can empower other patients, and help those serving patients understand what it means to be a good partner. The team’s work will help create a stronger foundation for a more equal and participatory system of care. More than 1,400 PatientsLikeMe members submitted applications for this year’s Team of Advisors. Those selected represent a range of medical and professional backgrounds and ages. The nearly equal mix of men and women are living with a cross-section of conditions, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis …

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ORE Researcher Series: McMaster University

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Last month, you met ORE researcher Tamara Kear, PhD., R.N., CNS, CNN, and you listened to her talk about her research on hypertension, one of the factors that can lead to a person developing kidney disease. Today, we’re introducing McMaster University Professor Gordon Guyatt and students Melody Ren and Reza Mirzaie. The question they are asking is “how are patients currently receiving bad news from a medical professional, and are the guidelines doctors have on delivering bad news actually correct?” Below, listen to the three researchers talk about their work and how the ORE platform and PatientsLikeMe made their research possible. What exactly is the ORE? PatientsLikeMe’s ORE platform gives patients the chance to not only check an answer box, but also share their feedback on each question in a researcher’s health measure. They can tell our research partners what makes sense, what doesn’t, and how relevant the overall tool is to their condition. It’s all about collaborating with patients as partners to create the most effective tools for measuring disease. Share this post on Twitter and help spread the word.

Results From PatientsLikeMe Survey Highlight Patient Beliefs About Medical Marijuana

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Cambridge, MA, July 14, 2015—A new survey of 219 PatientsLikeMe members has found that patients with certain conditions who use medical marijuana believe it is the best available treatment for them, with fewer side effects than other options and few risks. The survey, conducted in June 2015, is among the first to gauge patient perceptions about the benefits and risks of medical marijuana and their level of willingness to recommend its use. PatientsLikeMe’s Vice President for Advocacy, Policy, and Patient Safety, Sally Okun, RN said that while the number of respondents and conditions represented is limited, the survey and its results come at an important time. “As more people consider using medical marijuana, and more states legalize it, patients need to know what others are experiencing. This survey starts to gather real world data about marijuana as medicine—information that may be useful for patients and their physicians as they explore options and make treatment decisions.” Half of the survey respondents started using medical marijuana in the last five years, while 25% started to do so in the last two years. Smoking (71%), edibles (55%), and vaporizing (49%) were the most commonly used methods for taking the treatment. The top three …

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ORE Researcher Series: Tamara Kear is listening to kidney patients

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Over the next few months, you’ll meet a few Open Research Exchange (ORE) researchers, and first up is Tamara Kear, PhD., R.N., CNS, CNN. She has over 20 years’ practice as a nurse caring for patients with kidney disease. Her research is focused on hypertension, one of the factors that can lead to a person developing kidney disease. Tamara has developed a scale for healthcare providers that helps them learn how well a patient is doing at home and identify barriers they are experiencing in managing their hypertension. Her goal is to develop a better tool. In her video, she explains her ORE research and her philosophy that patients should be “not just informers for researchers, but actually the researchers themselves.” What exactly is the ORE? PatientsLikeMe’s ORE platform gives patients the chance to not only check an answer box, but also share their feedback on each question in a researcher’s health measure. They can tell our research partners what makes sense, what doesn’t, and how relevant the overall tool is to their condition. It’s all about collaborating with patients as partners to create the most effective tools for measuring disease. Share this post on Twitter and help spread the word.

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