Tuesday, November 2, 2010

#46 Parkinson’s Study

A news report from NY Times.
Google Co-Founder Backs Vast Parkinson’s Study

Please share your thoughts (i.e. using the comment function) after reading the report.

8 comments:

  1. Mr. Brin, who funded this study to find out more about Parkinson's disease, had a great plan. However, with the people being studied examining theirselves rather than a doctor viewing them, the results will obviously be skewed a bit. It is important for them to contribute their knowledge honestly for the study to be successful.

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  2. That is very interesting. With Google's support I feel that the project has a good shot a finding some new information. Hopefully this reaserch will help to produce a cure for the parkinsins. However Google may also use this as a spring bord to start moving in to the medical feild. Google has already started trying to get doctors to use a global medical reccord run by google to make people's reccords more accessable to doctors.

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  3. I think it is really neat that studying DNA can be done to tell you what diseases you can be predisposed for. It says that the one man will be funding the research for those participants, seems like a wonderful thing to do! I do wonder if there are more flaws in the research though since symptoms are only reported and not looked over by a doctor. I'm thinking the results as far as that aspect would be very flawed being that some people over dramatize conditions. I'm interested to see how this 23andMe program pans out and what kind of findings they might get. Are they trying to find a cure or something that will slow the actions of the Parkinson's gene?

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  4. I think it's a fantastic idea. Even though, Brin is bashed for only participating because he may develop the diesease; at least he is involved. Most people that get actively involved in helping to find cures, treatments, etc. are people who have or know someone with a particular disease. His tremendous amount of funds will be a great help in the study and even if he is doing it purely out of self-interest, others can also benefit. However, I do believe that people should have to be checked by doctors because people tend to exaggerate or undermine what they actually feel when it comes to such problems.

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  5. I would agree that by having patients simply tell their symptoms, the results would probably not be as accurate as if the patients would actually visit a doctor. I think this is a very generous offer by this guy to lend his own money to fund the research. I had a friend who has MS and did one of the research studies online and was able to attain her medication, which has helped her tremenously for free. The medication treatments would cost $25,000.00 if she were having ot pay for it herself.

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  6. I think this research group has a great plan and idea. Especially considering the fact that a person as wealthy as Mr.Brin is willing to financially support the research. There seems to be great potential for finding common traits between certain DNA. One concern I have about the plan is that there was a lot of discussion about discovering the chances for people to have Parkinson's diesease, but not a lot of promises about finding a cure. Also, there is something that I personally do not like about sharing medical and personal information on the internet. Some things should be kept private.

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  7. This article was very interesting, though it seemed a bit "tongue-in-cheek". It seems as though the research would be conducted in a way that isn't very reliable. The fact that patients would report, themselves, as to their symptoms, and the severity of their symptoms leaves too much room for inaccuracies. Each patient will have a different tolerance for pain, discomfort, and emotional strain. These dispositions will lead to less than "scientific" research and reporting on which to base any findings.

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  8. Oops. This post may be a duplicate- my first one vanished half-way through. If so, I apologize.

    I love it. When billionaires get sick, cures seem to surface. I'm glad he's investing in this cause. Using the internet to sign people up could be a good idea. It could result that there is more data collected this way than if a doctor were serving as the middle-man, or translator, in the communication process. I will be anxious to see the results of this study. It will be interesting to see where it leads. I like that they are only charging $25 so it is accessible to people of all walks of life, not just the wealthier among us.

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