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Article History

Received: 25 October 2018

Accepted: 12 November 2018

First Online: 23 November 2018

Author’s information

: PW is a researcher, patient, and caregiver. PW serves as Vice President of Innovation at PatientsLikeMe, an online community for people living with medical conditions. Specializing in the conduct of clinical research using the Internet, PW is responsible for shaping the scientific validity of the PatientsLikeMe platform and generating insights from personal health data shared by members. This sharing of online medical data has led to over 100 studies including a patient-driven observational trial of lithium in ALS, digital tools to develop patient-reported outcome measures, a ‘dose–response’ curve for the benefits of friendship between patients, and methods for patient-centered and virtual clinical trial designs. He sits on the editorial board of several journals, including <i>BMC Medicine</i>, the <i>BMJ</i>, and <i>The Patient</i>. Prior to joining PatientsLikeMe, PW worked at the Institute of Psychiatry (King’s College London) studying cognition and neuroimaging in rare forms of ALS, and the psychological consequences of Parkinson’s disease.

: PW is an employee of PatientsLikeMe (which facilitates patient-led research and self-experimentation) and holds stock options in the company. PW is an associate editor at the <i>Journal of Medical Internet Research</i> and is on the Editorial Boards of the <i>BMJ</i>, <i>BMC Medicine</i>, and <i>Digital Biomarkers</i>. The PatientsLikeMe Research Team has received research funding (including conference support and consulting fees) from Abbvie, Accorda, Actelion, Alexion, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Avanir, Biogen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, EMD, Genentech, Genzyme, Janssen, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Neuraltus, Novartis, Otsuka, Permobil, Pfizer, Sanofi, Shire, Takeda, Teva, and UCB. The PatientsLikeMe R&D team has received research grant funding from Kaiser Permanente, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Sage Bionetworks, The AKU Society, and the University of Maryland. PW has received speaker fees from Bayer and honoraria from Roche, ARISLA, AMIA, IMI, PSI, and the <i>BMJ</i>.

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