PatientsLikeMe ™

I joined PatientsLikeMe as a researcher because of my commitment to helping people take control over their healthcare decisions and personal wellbeing. My background is in media and psychology. As a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab, I built tools for people with diabetes to document and discuss personal health practice that impacts health outcomes. For my dissertation, I studied online communication and how people form impressions online. After receiving my degree, I did a post-doctoral fellowship in behavioral sciences and technology at Boston Medical Center. I feel lucky to have found PatientsLikeMe, a group and effort so close to my heart and passion.

At PatientsLikeMe I work on a variety of projects including the architecture of the site, survey development and community development. Please feel free to write me with any questions or comments you have.

My PatientsLikeMe Publications:

Frost, J., Massagli, M., Wicks, P., Heywood, J. (2008) How the Social Web Supports Patient Experimentation with a New Therapy: The demand for patient-centered medical informatics. Proceedings of 2008 Annual Meeting of American Medical Informatics Association. AMIA-0697-A2008.

Frost, J., Massagli, M. (2008) Social Uses of Personal Health Information within PatientsLikeMe, an Online Patient Community: What can happen when patients have access to one another's data Journal of Medical Internet Research, 10(3), e15.

Wicks, P., Frost, J. (2008) ALS Patients Request More Information About Cognitive Symptoms. European Journal of Neurology, 15(5), 497-500.

My Other Recent Publications in Health and Technology:

Smith, B. K., Frost, J., Albayrak, M., and Sudhakar, R. (2007) Integrating glucometers and digital photography as experience capture tools to enhance patient understanding and communication of diabetes self-management practices. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 11(4), 273-286.

Smith, B. K., Frost, J., Albayrak, M., and Sudhakar, R. (2006) Facilitating Narrative Medical Discussions of Type 1 Diabetes with Computer Visualizations and Photography. Patient Education and Counseling, 64(1-3), 313-321.