CureTogether, a San Mateo, CA startup, announced today a free health research service to bring together patients and researchers to make discoveries in a new, collaborative way.
The first conditions being studied are migraine, endometriosis, and vulvodynia; each affect more than five million Americans. Patients will also be able to share ideas and provide their anonymous medical data to an aggregate database available "open source" to any researcher in the world to study.
"We chose these conditions because they are underfunded, involve daily pain, and have personal meaning for us," said co-founder Alexandra Carmichael. "We saw the suffering of our close family and friends with these chronic conditions, and we wanted to do something to help." So they partnered with the Chandran Family Foundation for Healthcare Research and Education and researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "We may expand to other conditions if enough patients come together to request it," she added.
CureTogether's service reflects an emerging social networking trend to help patients share and understand their data, pioneered by companies like 23andMe, a web-based service that helps you read and understand your DNA; and PatientsLikeMe, which enables people with various diseases to share information about symptoms and treatments.
For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release, contact Alexandra Carmichael or visit http://www.curetogether.com.
About CureTogether:
CureTogether is a place where patients and researchers work together, doing open source research to accelerate cures. Patients can start feeling better today by connecting, sharing resources, and tracking their health. It's private, it's free, and the anonymous, aggregate data is open so researchers around the world can collaborate on it. Together we can make discoveries and work toward ending suffering for millions of people living with chronic conditions.
Contact:
Alexandra Carmichael, co-founder
CureTogether.com
650-533-2163
http://www.curetogether.com
