Great article

If you're interested in cutting edge Web 2.0 technology and how to get adults interested in it, there was a great article in the NY Times Magazine yesterday about a fairly new website called PatientsLikeMe.
"PatientsLikeMe seeks to go a mile deeper than health-information sites like WebMD or online support groups like Daily Strength. The members of PatientsLikeMe don't just share their experiences anecdotally; they quantify them, breaking down their symptoms and treatments into hard data. They note what hurts, where and for how long. They list their drugs and dosages and score how well they alleviate their symptoms. All this gets compiled over time, aggregated and crunched into tidy bar graphs and progress curves by the software behind the site. And it's all open for comparison and analysis. By telling so much, the members of PatientsLikeMe are creating a rich database of disease treatment and patient experience."
For the whole article, go to *http://tinyurl.com/37pzyp* (Registration required, but free) (I believe the magazine only stays readily accessible until Saturday the 29th and then goes into the archives)
Most professional development people say the best way to get adults interested in using tech is showing them something that they can immediately see as valuable. Well, this is it for sure. As PLM grows to include more medical conditions, it will be just incredible...and will spawn many analogous efforts in other fields...as alluded to at the end of the piece.
The site is http://www.PatientsLikeMe.com

Jim Lerman
Kean University