[BobbyB]

Dear PatientsLikeMe Community,

Spring is fast approaching and it’s time we checked in to let you know the exciting things that have been happening lately. As I write this we’re about to hit 1,000 registered patients! Please pass on details of the website to any PALS you know; word of mouth is our most effective way of growing the community. Don’t forget you can also invite caregivers and healthcare professionals to register on the site and get involved.

Parkinson’s / MS Disease Launch
As many of you know, we have been helping the ALS/MND community for about a year now with very positive feedback from patients, doctors, and researchers. We have learned from leaders in other disease areas that the PatientsLikeMe approach can benefit many other communities. That said, I’m pleased to formally announce that our next two PatientsLikeMe communities will be Parkinson's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Like ALS, MS and Parkinson’s are neurodegenerative movement disorders which affect millions of people throughout the world, but their causes still remain elusive. If any of you know any “community leaders” in Parkinson’s or MS that you think would make good beta testers for the new site (due to start at the end of this month) please send an email to support@patientslikeme.com.

New feature helps bring the answers straight to you!
We have added a new feature to the system which will help you learn more about your condition, your symptoms, and your treatments. If you go to any patient’s profile (including your own!) and hover your mouse over any FRS score, treatment name, or symptom, summary data entered into our answer network will be displayed as a “tooltip”. We hope you will find this useful.

Take part in epidemiological research
Some of you may have seen in the forum an appeal from Dr Elijah Stommel for volunteers to take part in a research study looking at the epidemiology of ALS. You are under no obligation to take part and you can choose to take part anonymously. The research may be published in a scientific journal or presented at conferences, but individual patients will never be identified. If you have any more questions about the research you can send a message to Kathryn West, the research assistant on the project. If you’d like to go ahead and take part, please click here.


PatientsLikeMe wins its first academic prize
We are thrilled to announce that a poster entitled “Telesocial Medicine for neurological diseases: PatientsLikeMe.com” won first prize in a competition at the British Neuropsychiatry Association in February. It was presented by resident researcher Dr. Paul Wicks who said “the response was really enthusiastic from doctors and researchers alike. They were interested in ways that the site could help patients manage their condition, share information, and learn from others.”

Thanks to everyone for their continued support. Remember if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions you can always drop me a message.

Many thanks

Ben Heywood