I think a lot of people came here, and stay here, for personal reasons. I'm sure some people would like to share those reaons. I'm sure others would like to read about them.

-j

I am not sure. I know about the tragedies that devastating diseases bring to the patients and their relatives. And certainly there must be forums to exchange thoughts about it. And I am glad to have learned that other distributed computing groups have come up with such. But ... not every distributed computing group needs such.

What I am a bit more missing are forums that discuss novel ideas/reports for the treatment and respective research of devastating diseases. This to me is the direct link to distributed computing efforts, not the patients. Volunteer computing lets patients contribute to reserach which is good. That is a link. But at the same time, patients can contribute by participation in clinical studies. This is the far more important link. Is their any site involving the participation of patients in clinical studies or research in general?

A specific side effect of such a forum is the increased attention particularly of big pharma in rare diseases. For these, the investment in their research is often considered as economically not valuable. In this sense, Pharma could well have donated the money to run FAAH on IBM's cell computer. It is the rare diseases that really need our help. I could imagine that patients that are comparing their symptoms with other diseases's symptoms might well develop novel ideas for their treatment, possibly beyond what a doctor could be trained for. As a side note, it might also be worthy to consider pimping up Wikipedia for these diseases.

All the best

SM

Yes, but it would easier to locate them if they were in their own forum.

I also like this subject--This is what brought me to WCG and all the people on my team and others being so supportive--sometimes i feel like there is nowhere to go but i always find very thoughful and kind people here