Paul Wicks

Paul Wicks, Ph.D., is Vice President of Innovation at PatientsLikeMe, an online community for people living with medical conditions. Specialising in the conduct of clinical research using the Internet, Paul is responsible for shaping the scientific validity of the PatientsLikeMe platform and generating insights from the personal health data shared by members. This sharing of online medical data has lead to over 70 novel studies including a patient-led 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 new methods for gaining patient input into clinical trial design. Prior to joining PatientsLikeMe, Paul 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. In 2011 he was awarded MIT Technology Review’s TR35 “Humanitarian of the Year” award and was recognized as a TED Fellow in 2012.

Competing Interests

Have you in the past five years accepted the following from an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of papers in the BMJ?
YES

Reimbursement for attending a symposium?
YES

A fee for speaking?
YES

A fee for organising education?
YES

Funds for research?
YES

Funds for a member of staff?
YES

Fees for consulting?
YES

Have you in the past five years been employed by any organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of papers in the BMJ?
YES

Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation?Do you have any other competing financial interests?
YES

I have the following competing interests.

Paul Wicks is an employee of PatientsLikeMe and holds stock/options in the company. The PatientsLikeMe R&D Team has received research funding (including conference support and consulting fees) from Abbvie, Accorda, AstraZeneca, Avanir, Biogen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genzyme, Janssen, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Sanofi, 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, University of Maryland, and University of Michigan.