PatientsLikeMe has interested me since its inception (see, for example: Genentech Taps On-Line Patient Communities to Improve Trials). It's a forum where about 600,000 patients with some 2,800 conditions "find answers, support and a path forward" by online conversations with others in similar circumstances. Thee company has recently been in the news because its majority owner was Chinese and it was forced to find a new owner -- UnitedHealth Group (see: UnitedHealth buys PatientsLikeMe, which faced Trump administration scrutiny over Chinese investor). Below is an excerpt from the article:
PatientsLikeMe, a health-tech start-up that was forced by the Trump administration to seek out a buyer because its majority owner is Chinese, has found a landing spot: UnitedHealth Group. The news comes amid increasing U.S. government scrutiny of Chinese investments in tech start-ups as trade tensions between the U.S. and China drag on. Direct investment in the U.S. from Chinese firms has plummeted 90% in two years, from $46 billion in 2016 to $4.8 billion in 2018....Another $20 billion in divestitures is still pending.... PatientsLikeMe provides an online service that helps patients find people with similar health conditions. According to an email sent to customers that was obtained by CNBC, PatientsLikeMe joined the insurer’s research and development group last Wednesday. The company said in the email that personal data will not be transferred in any way that wasn’t part of original patient consent....PatientsLikeMe founder Jamie Heywood confirmed the contents of the email to CNBC. He said that patients were the first to be informed....In 2017, PatientsLikeMe raised $100 million and sold a majority stake to Shenzhen-based iCarbonX, which was started by genomic scientist Jun Wang and is backed by Chinese giant Tencent. That deal drew the attention of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, which has been aggressively cracking down on Chinese investments in American companies, particularly when national security and trade secrets are at risk.
My last blog note about UnitedHealth Group discussed how it was going to launch its own EHR (see: UnitedHealth Group to Launch Its Own Variant of an EHR in 2019). The company is enormous and one of the most powerful entities in healthcare. It was the largest health insurer in 2018 with revenue over $200B (see: America's largest health insurers in 2018). Do I think it's "healthy" for PatientsLikeMe with its patient discussions to be part of the "research and development" group of UnitedHealth? The answer is no. However, I must say that the PatientsLikeMe is quite open about how and why it uses patient data on its Privacy Policy Page. Below are quotes from the page:
- Why Do We Share Data? We share data to create collective knowledge about disease, health, and treatments. At PatientsLikeMe, we believe in Openness.
- Who Uses the Data We Collect? We share data with the PatientsLikeMe community, PatientsLikeMe staff, as well as with partners and vendors.
I am sure that many of the patients using this web site gain insights and knowledge from their on-line discussions. However, I do worry that there may be some untoward consequences for their openness but I don't know exactly what they are.
Nice post author. Thank you.
Posted by: Tamal Bose | July 01, 2019 at 06:01 AM
Nice post author. Thank you.
Posted by: Mondal Construction | July 01, 2019 at 05:59 AM