Condition/community reports highlighting new patient stories
Now that you can add stories to your profile updates, we wanted to highlight these stories and make it easier for you to share and connect with other patients with your condition. So we've made some updates to the condition pages to make it easier to answer common questions, like what is it like to have this condition? What do people take to treat it? Who is new who has this condition? Now you can see all those answers in one place.
Additionally, a few months ago, we started asking new members to answer a quick question as part of signup: "What do you want to learn at PLM?" So many of you have shared lots of interesting stories and experiences and now you can easily see these new member stories on the "Who's new" tab of any condition you like. We hope some of you will check back often and welcome new members, help answer questions and show them around PLM.
You can also see the latest activity from all patients with that condition, so it's easier to entry make connections with other members, new and old.
On each of these pages (and the feed on your profile) you can see stories sorted by "top updates" or by " most recent."
Condition History allows approximate dates
Many of you have commented that we've asked you for specific dates you may not remember. There are a few exceptions (like transplant surgery dates) but for the most part
the condition questions no longer require exact dates anymore. You can just select a year, so it should be easier to answer.
Improved Search results
We have updated our site search. This will take some tweaking to get just right, so we welcome your thoughts and feedback about what is working and what could be better.
We decided to use a Google tool to help with search. Now anytime you use the site search you should get a nifty (and very fast) autocomplete set of results. If you are looking for a user- the matching user results will appear on the right hand side of the page.
Try it out and let us know what you think!
Note that these changes do not affect the forum search functionality yet. We wanted to see how this works first, but we hope to get an updated and integrated forum search up and running soon!
1)Blood pressure is a lab
Keep track of your blood pressure as part of managing your health? Now you can add it to your PLM profile. Any previous blood pressure data you have entered should be on your labs page and other members who want to add blood pressure can do so!
2) 'On leave' admin status option
We've created a new 'on leave' admin status option so any PLM employee who is temporarily away or on-leave (eg. Jeannette while she's on maternity leave) will be able to signal to the community that they're away w/o having to disable their account. So if you see an "on leave" admin account, now you know why!
3) Add a "set to today" button on date pickers
We made a small tweak to make the date selector easier to use. Now instead of having to select a month, day and year, there is a shortcut to set the date picker to today's date.
4) Forum Guides
We've added guides to the forum homepage, forum rooms, and forum threads. These guides will appear automatically the first time you visit the page, and you can either dismiss them right away, or get them back later by pressing "show guides" at the top of the page. Check them out!
1) Condition History changes
We have made some improvements to the pages where you add and edit your conditions. Previously, the condition history pages did not use the left hand navigation that the rest of the profile pages use.Now it will keep the same navigation so you'll always know how to access the rest of your profile page activities. And you have an easy way to see and manage all the conditions listed on your profile.
You can add, update, follow and edit your conditions all from one page. Additionally, you'll see a yellow prompt at the top of the conditions page which shows a recommended next step.
If you want to add a new condition to your profile, you can do so using a pop up box (which is what you will to add other symptoms and conditions in most other places on the site) instead of being taken to the separate condition picker page.
Of course we have guides to show you around the new page. Go on over and take a look!
2) Tell your story prompts on condition history entry.
PatientsLikeMe knows that behind every piece of data is a story, so in addition to asking about important dates and answers about your experiences with conditions, we also want to be sure we give you the opportunity to share your story in a way that others can connect and respond to as well.
So now at the end of the condition history form, we've added a prompt to tell a story about their condition.
These stories will appear as feed events for anyone who follows you, and are an important update in your health journal. If you haven't been updating your journal, adding a story about your condition is a great way to get started!
3) Add a story on outcome entry
We've also added the ability to add your story on outcome entry. You've always been able to add stories to your outcome updates, but we've made it easier. Now after you update an outcome score, instead of going back to your profile chart, you'll be taken to a page where you can easily add a story to your outcome score. Additionally, we've unified the outcome history pages so they now show all previous events with the ability to add or edit stories or photos on each update.
4) Replace spam messages with a nicer message
Unfortunately, sometimes members join PatientsLikeMe with less than good intentions and use the site to spam other members. When that happens, we have the ability to remove all the comments a member left before we caught and suspended their account. Unfortunately, members who received the spam still get a notification from us indicating they received a message. In those instances, we will now replace that spam message with a nicer message from Kate explaining what happened.
5) DLQI in patient search
If you are a psoriasis patient, you can now search for fellow psoriasis patients by their DLQI score on the patient search page.
1) "How can PatientsLikeMe help you?"
New PatientsLikeMe members get a "quick start" guide when they join the site. We ask their age, gender, condition and treatments so we can find patients like them. Now we are also asking new members what they hope to get out of PatientsLikeMe. The answer to this question will be the first entry in their health journal. So if you like to welcome new members, be sure to check out their journals to learn more about what they hope to find at PatientsLikeMe!
PS- If you would like to find new members them and welcome them, an easy way to do that is to follow your condition then all new members will show up in your feed.
2) Adding a new symptom is easier
We've simplified the way you add a new symptom to your profile. Previously when you added a symptom, you needed to add the symptom, then fill out 3 pieces of data before we added the symptom to your profile.
You may remember that page looked like this:
Now when you click "add another symptom" from your symptoms page, you'll see a pop up box like you see in many other pages on the site.
After you add a symptom, you will go to the symptom history page where you can add as much history as you like about the severity of that symptom.
3) Are you a veteran?
If you are a US veteran, we want to know! There is now a new (non-star required!) question on your basic info page that asks if you have ever served in the US armed forces. If you say yes, you can also select your branch.
