Patients Online Empower Health Advances September 2nd, 2009
Tom Amontree

How can medical researchers pool the collective experiences of patients worldwide to help find life-enhancing answers?  According to a recent New York Times story, broadband is providing a powerful platform for patient communications that is both cost-effective and illuminating:  online research communities.

One example is LAMsight.org, which brings together a network of patients around the globe who suffer from LAM, a rare and poorly understood lung degeneration disease.  The site, a partnership between the LAM Treatment Alliance (LTA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), gives patients the opportunity to contribute their day-to-day experiences with the disease, and enables LAM researchers to analyze this data in real-time.  The result is a highly informative database that helps medical professionals make hypotheses, and refine their observations based on the ongoing reports of real-world patients living with LAM.

Private companies are also tapping into this trend.  For example, the pharmaceutical company UCB created the website PatientsLikeMe so that epilepsy patients can share the details of their diseases, as well as their personal experiences with the medications they are taking to alleviate the symptoms of their conditions.  The company says this forum is a cost-effective and incredibly informative way to gather experiential data and connect with patients’ needs.

According to a Pew Internet and American Life Project study, 61% of American adults are going online to find health information.  With such a large number tapping into broadband for health-related reasons, the opportunity to enhance patient health by engaging individuals online is significant, and will only continue to grow.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Benefits of Broadband. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.