October 30, 2008

A Healthcare Social Network

Wayne Glowac

I looked into a website I’d heard about today, it’s called “PatientsLikeMe.” It’s a place for people to create health-based profiles about themselves; in other words, it’s social networking for patients. I was intrigued, so I created a fake profile to see how it all worked.

I started by choosing my ailment, anything from mood to neurological conditions, and entered “depression.” Before I had even filled anything out, the site showed me thousands of other members with the same condition. I could narrow them down based on age, gender, symptoms, or treatments tried too.

I then followed the steps to customize my profile; I had to enter information about my condition using a short survey. The completed results created a “Mood Map” where I would be able to enter updated information weekly to see my progress. The Map is just that, a visual representation of my health status, in my case, my mood. It was easy to update, and I could create a printable version and show it to my doctor if I had an appointment.

I finished my profile and started exploring a bit more, and found that I could network with just about anyone, not only patients. I had the option of creating my personal “CareTeam,” or network of physicians, friends, etc. that help me with treatment. They would be able to see my progress online as they wished.

But the best part of this website was the ability to network with other patients at the “Forum.” There, I browsed through hundreds of pages of user-generated content about everything from causes to treatment. The amount of information here is almost overwhelming, but since I could flag posts that I liked as “helpful,” it was easier to sift through content.

While I wouldn’t trust the site alone for my healthcare, it is definitely a positive element that would be very useful as part of a complete treatment plan. Aside from the obvious health benefits, just knowing that there are at least 4,000 other people that could be in the exact same boat is comforting.

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