Paul Wick’s inspirational talk about PatientsLikeMe at PSI 2016 in Berlin

It was total pleasure to listen to Paul Wick’s (VP of Innovation at PLM)  talk [1] about the PatientsLikeMe platform. Major learnings for me were:

  • the enormous increased potential for patients in clinical trials to unblind themselves by exchanging info on their experiences on the treatment (eg side effects) .
  • the enormous creativity of patients hacking their medical devices, e.g. controlling their insuline levels to get better treatment
  • the power of patients to share their data with whom they like thereby avoiding data being “owned” by some academics or drug companies who pursue their own goals, which are not necessarily always the same as the interest of the patients
  • Potential for citizen science [2]

PatientsLikeMe definitely deserved the title of being the new radicals some time ago [3]. Looking forward to future collaboration between PLM and AstraZeneca [4].

[1] https://www.patientslikeme.com/members/view/59
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_science
[3] http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2012/feb/18/50-new-radicals-britain-nesta
[4] https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2015/astrazeneca-patientslikeme-research-oncology-diabetes-lupus-respiratory-disease-13042015.html