“We the people have the right to take possession of a complete copy of our individual health data, without delay, at minimal or no cost.” – Jamie Heywood

When Jamie Heywood’s brother was diagnosed with ALS, he devoted his life to fighting the disease as well. The Heywood brothers built an ingenious website where people share and track data on their illnesses — and they discovered that the collective data had enormous power to comfort, explain and predict.

In 2005, Jamie and his youngest brother Ben, along with close friend Jeff Cole, built PatientsLikeMe.com to give patients control and access to their healthcare information and compare it to others like them. Its bold (and somewhat controversial) approach involves aggregating users health info in order to test the effects of particular treatments, bypassing clinical trials. It was named one of “15 companies that will change the world” by CNN Money.

.

What can we share to learn more about
our health conditions from others?

.

.