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PatientsLikeMe Social Network Refutes Published Clinical Trial Nature Biotechnology

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PatientsLikeMe Social Network Refutes Published Clinical Trial Nature Biotechnology
Paper Details Breakthrough in Real World Outcomes Measurement
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 25, 2011

Today, PatientsLikeMe reveals the results of a patient-initiated observational study refuting a 2008(1) published study that claimed lithium carbonate could slow the progression of the neurodegenerative disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). PatientsLikeMe, a health data-sharing website with more than 100,000 patients and 500+ conditions, announces its study results in the journal, Nature Biotechnology. "This is the first time a social network has been used to evaluate a treatment in a patient population in real time," says ALS pioneer and PatientsLikeMe CoFounder Jamie Heywood. "While not a replacement for the gold standard double blind clinical trial, our platform can provide supplementary data to support effective decision-making in medicine and discovery. Patients win when reliable data is made available, sooner." After the original claim was published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 348 ALS patient members reported their off label use of lithium on PatientsLikeMe. Just 9 months later at the International ALS/MND Symposium, PatientsLikeMe presented preliminary results that lithium was not having an observable effect on the disease progression of these patients. The results were revealed before any of the formal follow up trials enrolled patients. PatientsLikeMe developed a novel algorithm designed to match patients who reported taking lithium with a number of other ALS patients that had similar disease courses. By using a matched control group, PatientsLikeMe was able to reduce biases associated with evaluating the effects of treatments in open label, real world situations and improve the statistical power of the study making each patients contribution more meaningful. Heywood adds, "The rising costs of healthcare and increasing complexity of managing disease require new approaches to comparative effectiveness research

and real time management of disease. While there is much work to do, we have demonstrated a patient-centric approach that provides dramatic cost and time advantages." Nature Biotechnology has made the final publication, titled, "Accelerated clinical discovery using self-reported patient data collected online and a patient-matching algorithm," available for free to the public on its website (DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1837).
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(Fornai et al., "Lithium delays progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis." Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Feb 12;105(6):2052-7.) About PatientsLikeMe PatientsLikeMe® (www.patientslikeme.com) is the world's leading online health data sharing platform. PatientsLikeMe® creates new knowledge by charting the real-world course of disease through the shared experiences of patients. While patients interact to help improve their outcomes, the data they provide helps researchers learn how these diseases act in the real world and accelerate the discovery of new, more effective treatments. [Follow company news on Twitter.com/PatientsLikeMe and http://blog.patientslikeme.com]

Summary Last April 25, 2011, PatientsLikeMe revealed the results of a patient-initiated observational study refuting a 2008(1) published study that claimed lithium carbonate could slow the progression of the neurodegenerative disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). PatientsLikeMe, a health data-sharing website with more than 100,000 patients and 500+ conditions, announced its study results in the journal, Nature Biotechnology.

Description PatientsLikeMe developed a novel algorithm designed to match patients who reported taking lithium with a number of other ALS patients that had similar disease courses. By using a matched control group, PatientsLikeMe was able to reduce biases associated with evaluating the effects of treatments in open label, real world situations and improve the statistical power of the study making each patients contribution more meaningful.

Tags: clinical trial, Crowdsourcing, Jamie Heywood, lithium carbonate, neurodegenerative disease, PatientsLikeMe, social network

Posted by Rebecca Gutierrez

May 05, 2011 06:11 am GMT Viewed 4983 times

Author: PatientsLikeMe Source

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PatientsLikeMe Social Network Refutes Published Clinical Trial Nature Biotechnology

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