Working in Partnership

Dear Prader Willi Associations around the World,

My name is Rob Pleticha and I am the Online Communities Manager at EURORDIS.

We hope all is well with you and your colleagues.  An opportunity has come up, and we'd like to get your thoughts on it and to share the following information with any of your colleagues who might be interested.

EURORDIS is working in partnership with the National Organization for Rare Disorders, NORD, to establish global online patient communities.  The aim of these communities is to help affected individuals and families understand their conditions, connect with others, and access helpful tools and resources.  Ultimately, we hope these communities also will help link patients and families with researchers and clinicians who have expertise in their diseases.  A tool has been developed to provide translation to and from five different languages to help break down barriers that might otherwise exist.

We are currently in the early stages of setting up a community for PWS, and we would be delighted if your group was interested in partnering with NORD, EURORDIS, IPWSO, PWS USA, PWS Romania, PWS India, and PWS New Zealand.

The vision is for the online communities to be monitored by patient advocates, patient organization representatives, and experts from within the specific disease community.  This format will create a trusted safe space that can facilitate community building and information-sharing. 

We recently launched 11 communities, which you can visit at rarediseasecommunities.org.  We hope to launch 3 or 4 more in the next several months and, ultimately, many more.  Is this something that might be of interest to you?  And, if so, would you be available to hear more about it sometime soon?

Rob

Robert Pleticha, Online Patient Communities Manager

 EURORDIS

Plateforme Maladies Rares
96, rue Didot
75014 Paris
France Tel: +33 (1) 56.53.52.69
Fax: +33 (1) 56.53.52.15
robert.pleticha@eurordis.org