There have been large changes in the area of healthcare in the past decades concerning patient participation, patient empowerment and the development of knowledge in healthcare. This has consequences for, amongst other things, the relationship between patients and caregivers. Web. 2.0 made different types of online communities for patients possible and the concept Medicine 2.0 was developed for health issues on the Internet. This paper addresses one such community, namely PatiensLikeMe.com (PLM). PLM is designed for patients’ independent use to get information and knowledge about their disease, and to get in contact with other patients with the same diagnosis to share experiences. Our aim is to analyse the online community PatientLikeMe.com from the perspective of how the type of information it allows for, can be used by patients and what consequences it may have for the doctor-patient relationship and thereby on the work environment of the doctors. Traditionally the doctor’s knowledge base has been seen as specific and difficult to gain for actors outside the profession. This might now change due to the patients’ opportunity to build their own knowledge base on PLM and other similar sights. This may enhance patient empowerment and literacy but also lead to impairment of the doctor-patient relationship and ultimately the working conditions of the medical profession through loss of control over their knowledge base.

Practitioner Summary: PatientsLikeMe.com is an example of an online community that enables patients to communicate, interact and share their information about their health conditions. Patients can thus build a knowledge base of their own on the site. Traditionally this type of knowledge base has been exclusive to the doctors. In the paper we discuss how this may change the doctor-patient relationship and the working conditions for the medical profession. Copyright © Petersson & Erlingsdóttir.