Case: Patients like me

Clients like me(PLM) is a social media network which covers different illness. Members get access to a big database of details about other individuals who has the same disease as them selves.

They also have access to forums, which lets them communicate with other patients as well. This enables patients to get info about their illness and get brand-new insight, the possibility to request for practical recommendations, which doctors do not know about. Other factors for ending up being a member can be to add to research study about their disease, to assist other individuals with the same medical issues, sharing experiences and having somebody to relate to and who understands what they are going through.

The website therefore covers human requirements for both info and emotional assistance when handeling complex issues in pressing scenarios.

Does the platform work for any diseases?

In the short term the platform is most helpful on diseases that have a lot of everyday practical elements to it.

Get quality help now

Prof. Finch

Verified writer

Proficient in: Disease

4.7 (346)

“ This writer never make an mistake for me always deliver long before due date. Am telling you man this writer is absolutely the best. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

This is because this is where other patients can best contributing with guidance. In the longer term medical business can use the information to research new drugs. What are the responses of doctors to websites like PLM?

Do you agree with them? Reactions for physicians are generally problems of misinformation and for what purpose the information is used. When it comes to misinformation this is associated to individuals self reporting on their disease and individuals without a medical degree voicing their unqualified opinion about drugs, other individuals signs ect.

The declarations on these pages can have effects that unqualified person did not plan.

When it concerns false information I have concur with the physicians. There are constraints to the information published by the unqualified members of websites like PLM. On the other hand I am also of the opinion that even though the information is self-reported, it can be an important lead and offer info that is excellent enough for a particular usage. This large amount of self reported info could also be a method to gain brand-new insights that were formerly unidentified.

Should PLM launch the General Platform? If yes, how does it ensure that it is as successful in engaging patients as its current platform? If no, how does PLM grow? From a business standpoint, PLM should launch the General Platform. This creates a business opportunity to start the first communities for a lot of different illnesses that does not yet have a social network. The first mover advantage is very significant in social media and should be taken advantage of.

There are a number of factors that make up a digital social network with engaged users. One of them is functionality and ease of use. This is very important so that the user experience is as enjoyable as possible and thereby barriers to usage are as low. Secondly, the content that is on the site needs to be of use for the members using it.

This means that there should be some sort of moderation on the site. This is important since bad/abusive/misinforming users tend to crowd out the good/contributing users. If abusive users are allowed to still be active on the site can make potential members shy away from the site. This will seriously damage the PLM brand and profitability in the long run.

By being aware of this and having prepared systems to handle this kind of problem the risk of this happening is limited.

So far, PLM has generated revenues by providing market research to pharmaceutical companies. Should it expand its business model to insurance companies and research institutions?

Does it have the potential of becoming the “Bloomberg of medical data’? PLM has opened a large amount of data about different patients that would otherwise not be avaliable to third party institutions. This makes it possible for them to become a ”Bloomberg of medical data”. It is without doubt that this can be a large business opportunity for PLM and the firms in need of medical information.

If insurance companies could get better insight into how the populations health is, they could write more precise policies which better descibes the risk that patients are exposed to. If the risk is overstated, this means more expensive insurrance. This can lead to a loss of marketshare for the
insurrance company and higher prices for consumers.

Research institutions can get access to data that they might not have been able to get or would have cost a lot of money to gather. This would be a win-win situation for both PLM, the research institutions, insurance companies and patients.