Partners HealthCare announced they would provide their patients access to PatientsLikeMe website tools and information that can help improve decision making with their clinical teams and enhance health outcomes. PatientsLikeMe Executive Vice President of Marketing and Patient Advocacy Michael Evers stated the agreement is the first to provide access to the website from within a provider’s patient portal.
Partners Population Health Management Associate Medical Director Adam Licurse, MD, MHS, who is a leader in population health patient engagement efforts at Partners, added the agreement is a key building block towards the healthcare system’s vision for better involving patients in their care. “We know that as patients become more engaged in their care, they have better care experiences, make more informed decisions based on their goals, and in some cases can actually receive higher value care at the end of the day. Peer mentorship, patient self-management, and patient education are all critical pieces to that puzzle. We believe PatientsLikeMe’s online patient community provides a meaningful solution to help meet these needs.”
As part of the agreement, the organizations:
– Have provided access to PatientsLikeMe from Partners Patient Gateway, an online portal tool for patients to learn more about their condition and communicate with their doctors’ offices.
– Will introduce a new “PatientsLikeMe 101” training series to guide Partners HealthCare clinical teams in helping patients and caregivers get the most out of PatientsLikeMe’s tools and support network.
– Plan to include patients’ use of the website and its tools at the point of care in select Partners HealthCare clinical care sites and practices. Partners HealthCare clinicians are currently outlining several projects designed to understand how the use of patient-generated health data at the point of care can impact health outcomes, patient engagement, patient empowerment, care coordination and patient satisfaction. The projects are expected to kick off this year.
Partners HealthCare patients are welcome to voluntarily join PatientsLikeMe at http://www.patientslikeme.com or through their Partners Patient Gateway account.
