Colleagues,
As reported in MIT Tech Review ... Startup
PatientsLikeMe is harvesting and analyzing patient information
in a whole new way...
... The site, part social networking and part health 2.0, has gathered a
wealth of data on its 65,000 members, which span 16 different disease communities, including epilepsy, fibromyalgia, and depression. It provides users with tools to track their health status and communicate with other patients, and then removes the personal details and sells the data to pharmaceutical companies and others...
... The approach won't replace clinical trials, at least anytime soon. But
some experts do believe it could have enormous benefits, highlighting how different types of patients use drugs, when they stop, or what side effects they experience...
Read on at:
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/25276/?nlid=2970&a=fENJOY!
CC