FW: May Newsletter: Enhance Your Doctor Visits

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From: PatientsLikeMe

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Sent: 25 May 2011 18:28

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Subject: May Newsletter: Enhance Your Doctor Visits

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NEWSLETTER

ISSUE 5 — May 2011

MONTHLY

MUSINGS

What

makes for a good doctor visit?

According

to what you and other patients have reported, PatientsLikeMe members make an

average of four trips to the doctor each year. What you’re able to

learn and take away from a visit can vary greatly, however. For example,

did you get to discuss all of your questions and recent symptoms?

Or was the appointment too quick for that?

It’s not

always possible to control whether you’re allotted 20 minutes or an

hour. But there is something you can do to help get any healthcare

provider up to speed quickly. It’s called the Doctor

Visit Sheet (DVS), and it provides a handy summary of your current

treatments, symptom charts, treatment charts and outcome scores, all pulled

together from the information you enter on your

profile.

If you

like, the DVS can also display your InstantMe scores (including your descriptive notes) to

illustrate what was going on at certain points in time. Simply

customize the period of time you want to show your doctor and then hit

print. It’s that easy. (The DVS won’t help much if your health information

is outdated, though. Want some help remembering to update your profile?

Set

up an automatic email reminder.)

Can’t

wait to hear how it goes at your next doctor visit!

Jeanette

DeVita

Community Manager

JOIN

THE CONVERSATON

Check

out some of the wide-ranging topics across the forum

to see what issues touch nearly all of you. Then jump in with your own

questions and answers!

Parenting

E.g. A mom with

fibromyalgia (FM/CFS/ME room)

Weight loss

E.g. Does diet

soda hinder you? (Mental Health room)

Discrimination

E.g. Forced out

of my job (Epilepsy room)

Balance

E.g. How to

avoid falling and tripping (PD room)

Doctors

E.g. Who knows

best – doctor or patient? (MS room)

GETTING

TO KNOW ALL OF YOU

What

happens when you share your health experiences at PatientsLikeMe?

Here’s what patients with different

conditions are saying about the power of sharing.

“I have to say, if it wasn't for PatientsLikeMe,

I'd still have a lot of my original frustrations about epilepsy. I've

learned so much from others here, and it's awesome to be able to share

my experiences and have other share theirs with me as well. We share

ours as a group and grow.†– Member

with epilepsy

“Sharing is one of the ways we can help each

other through this maze. I don't have an extra million bucks to

fund research, so pooling our experiences and knowledge is about what

each can contribute. And, sharing may well help someone to avoid

what you have gone through...at the very least, we know the possibility

exists!†– Member

with PD

“PatientsLikeMe has shrunk the world for me. And

though I rarely see another person with ALS in person, this site gives

one an amazing sense of community. It is comforting to regularly

interact with others that know exactly what you are going through, and

someone always has suggestions.†– Member

with ALS

THIS

MONTH’S SITE IMPROVEMENTS

We are

constantly working to improve our site. In this section, we’ll keep you

up-to-date on new tools and features designed to make your PatientsLikeMe

experience even better.

Here are

our top functionality

enhancements for May:

Finding patients like you is a true “a-haâ€

moment. That’s why we’ve added a brief slideshow at the top of the

Patients

page that shows you how to use the various search filters (including

condition, age, gender, treatments, symptoms, etc.) to find those who

share your health situation. Learn how to get the most out of your

patient search with this helpful tutorial.

The next time you log in to PatientsLikeMe, you

may be asked to confirm or update your

treatments. Keeping treatment data up-to-date helps everyone,

and so every three months moving forward, we’ll do a quick, two-minute

checkup with you to ensure your list of treatments is still current.

Do you struggle to read things on your computer screen?

You can now customize the look of PatientsLikeMe to make it easier to

read and use. Adjust things like font and contrast, disable

all-caps text and more. Here’s how: click “Settings†in the

top right navigation bar and make your selections from the drop-down

menu.

VOTE

ON THE BEST VIDEOS!

Thanks

to everyone who entered the “Express

Yourself†Video Contest! The voting period is now underway, so

don't forget to vote on

your favorite videos by June 3, 2011. Non-members can vote too,

so be sure to tell your friends and family via email, Facebook, Twitter or

word of mouth.

A

SHOT OF AWARENESS

In

April and May, we observed the awareness month or day for several

conditions on our blog.

Take a quick read and increase your knowledge today.

Autism

Awareness Month (April)

IBS

Awareness Month (April)

Lupus

Awareness Month (May)

Fibromyalgia

Awareness Day (May 12)

Mental

Health Awareness Month (May)

ALS

Awareness Month (May)

PATIENTSLIKEME

IN THE NEWS

Former

Massachusetts Governor Cellucci recently talked

about his ALS diagnosis for the first time on Chronicle,

a nightly news show on WCVB-TV in Boston. We were honored to have

been featured in the

four-part piece, which included a segment on

Heywood’s battle with ALS as well as an

interview with Co-Founder and Chairman Heywood.

NEW

CONDITIONS GALORE

Have

any of the following conditions? Update your

profile today and start connecting with others who share your

conditions.

Obesity

Psoriasis

Emphysema

Diabetes Type 2

Endometriosis

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

A

LITTLE HELP FROM YOUR FRIENDS

There’s

a new forum room called the PatientsLikeMe

Site Help Room. Got a question? Post it here. You’ll

soon learn tips and tricks from fellow members for getting the most out of

the site.

STAY

CONNECTED

Keep

up with PatientsLikeMe via our blog,

Facebook,

Twitter

and YouTube.

Also, tune into PatientsLikeMeOnCallâ„¢

for our latest podcasts, including interviews with PatientsLikeMe

executives.

ARE

YOU CURRENT?

Are

all of your current treatments

reflected on your profile? Have you started a drug

recently but not yet added it? Review

your profile today to verify that your information is

up-to-date.