PatientsLikeMe, is a credible social utility network that enables its members to share information about treatment and symptoms of various life-alerting diseases, and improve their lives. With this application, users can share their personal experience of an illness or medical disorder in a seamless manner. In addition to this, the members of this online community can also track and learn about the experiences of other people who are actually afflicted with the similar problems. The basic motto of this website is "Patients helping patients live better every day” and keeping this objective in mind the application allows the users to easily interact with people all around the world, track about their treatments and also explore about the results of their treatments. This application is a valuable platform for all those, who are looking forward to track the symptoms, treatments, feelings and health outcomes of certain illnesses. PatientsLikeMe, extends all its members with several charts to enter relevant data and these requires them to state all relevant changes including, if any of the symptoms turns better or worse, any variation in blood pressure or weight is recorded based upon the consumption of mix of dosages and drugs etc they are undertaking. The members can discuss or share this content through the forums, private messages and through the comments column on their profiles. During the year 1998, Stephen Heywood, a young carpenter was diagnosed with ALS. Since there is no cure known for ALS, Heywood family started searching across the world for some assistive technologies and treatments that may lengthen Stephen’s life and improve his living. This is what convinced the brothers; Benjamin and James Heywood to launch a site that could help people to create a platform for the users to collect and share the real world and outcome-based patient data and PatientsLikeMe came into existence in 2004. By May 2008 the site has been able to garner a dedicated user base. These include over 5000 users suffering from multiple sclerosis, around 2000 users suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, another 2000 users troubled with mood disorders, almost 700 users with HIV and about 1600 users with Parkinson’s disease. Though there are a number of websites that offer similar services as PatientsLikeMe, still the application enjoys great repute in the market. The basic feature that offers a distinct and unique identity to the application is that it goes miles deeper than the other health information sites. With this effective application, users can not only share their experiences but also quantify them. The application allows its users to maintain certain charts and share their structured data on symptoms, treatments and outcomes. PatientsLikeMe is an aesthetically appealing web-based social networking website which maintains a perfect balance between the information displayed and the use of graphics. Also, almost every page allows its users to express their personal views and share their experiences. The website also displays the charts of its users in a well organized manner, so that the other members can understand it easily. These charts also become a backdrop for the conversation on the website forums. Signing in to the PatientsLikeMe network is an extremely simple and concise process. By feeding in certain personal details that are required by the application, users can sign in and enjoy the benefits of the application. Certain required details include your name, email id, password and most importantly the illness for which you wish to register and find out more. PatientsLikeMe, is a commercial site that aims to sell anonymized data of its users to the drug and medical companies. However, the members of this site are free to use its valuable services. PatientsLikeMe, can be a great source of help and support to all those patients who are suffering from various diseases and this application is recommended to all people who are undergoing treatment for medical conditions. It is also recommended for doctors, medical students to understand the experience of people suffering from a particular condition.

• Allows users to empathize with each other.
• Enables users to learn about various treatments and medications from other members.
• Facilitates users to enter their structured data into charts.
• Offers free of charge platform to its users.
• Has an extensive range of information on the site related to numerous medical conditions

http://www.patientslikeme.com/