Hi there Boann, yes we are a for-profit company. That means that rather than having to get grant funding or beg or borrow people's time, we're able to hire a professional staff, sponsor activities in the community, and act in a rapid and responsive fashion.

Two of the founders are Ben & Jamie Heywood, whose brother Stephen had ALS. Jamie runs the largest non-profit laboratory in the world, ALSTDI, and so is well versed on the trials and tribulations of running a non-profit as well as a for-profit. I like to think of us as a "not-just-for-profit" but if that's got the more sceptical readers sticking their fingers down their throats, so be it

We do feed back the information we collect straight to PWP; you can look up all sorts on info on our answer network for instance. Whenever we carry out a survey (the statins survey is our first in PD but I have plenty planned as I am also funded by the PD Society to do research into mood and emotion), as soon as we have carried out the analysis we feed back the results to the whole community.

If you have any other questions feel free to get in touch at pwicks@patientslikeme.com.

All the best

Paul Wicks
Resident Researcher
PatientsLikeMe.com