HealthTree®, the first disease navigation platform to crowdsource and accelerate cures for terminal illnesses including multiple myeloma, today announced the launch of a new feature called “Patient Solutions,” accessed in the HealthTree Cure Hub. This is the latest capability added to the HealthTree platform empowering patients to use curated data on side effects and potential solutions to resolve pressing and painful side effects caused by their disease or their treatments.
While the first application for this feature is focused on multiple myeloma patients, each of HealthTree’s portals and features are designed to be able to be replicated to curate the same information for other disease and illness.
This is the first time such a resource has been available to patients.
“Typically, patients will reach out to peers or on social media to find solutions to these common side effects, but the solutions are anecdotal,” said Jennifer Ahlstrom, founder of The HealthTree Foundation. “As a result, patients are unsure how well any given suggestion really worked and for how many patients. Until now, there have not been data-driven solutions patients could review with their doctors. HealthTree’s Patient Solutions feature arms patients with the information they need to make informed decisions and mitigate their side effects to enable the best patient outcomes.”
The goal of this platform is to empower patients to make informed decisions based on patient-contributed, real world data. Patients can quickly access information from fellow myeloma patients regarding the potential side effects they may experience during treatment outside of what is on the product labeling.
With this first-of-its-kind solution patients can search for a particular drug by name, view a list of the most common side effects associated with that drug along with the percentage of patients who have experienced any given side effect, and explore a list of patient-reported solutions that have been found to alleviate each respective side effect.
How it Works:
- Patients enter data in the form of their experiences with a certain drug or treatment such as any side effects they have experienced. Then they can log remedies they have found helpful; for example, maybe acupuncture alleviated their neuropathy.
- When enough patients enter their information, the portal aggregates this data and helps other patients make informed decisions about treatments they’re considering. The data also helps patients navigate their side effects and discover remedies or solutions to side effects they may not have known about otherwise.
- The data will show percentages of other patients who have experienced any given side effect and the percentage of patients that any given solution helped.
For more information, visit www.HealthTree.org.
About The HealthTree Foundation / Myeloma Crowd
The HealthTree Foundation is a patient-driven, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that empowers patients at each step of their disease journey. Myeloma patients can access the foundation’s resources for free. These include the HealthTree Cure Hub (previously called HealthTree), an online community tool that helps patients explore their best treatment options, find clinical trials based on their stage of disease and lab values, and contribute their de-identified data to accelerate a cure. Other HealthTree tools include a learning management platform called HealthTree University, a HealthTree Coach mentoring program, patient Community Forums, and a Twin Machine feature that allows patients to find, connect and chat with others whose diseases have similar or identical genetic characteristics. Jennifer Ahlstrom and her husband Paul founded the HealthTree Foundation and the Myeloma Crowd which provides patient education, advocacy and research funding for multiple myeloma.
SOURCE Myeloma Crowd: HealthTree Foundation