July 28, 2015
On World Hepatitis Day, Treato Reveals What Patients Say About Drugs
Winnie McCroy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
July 28 is World Hepatitis Day, a time for people to raise their awareness about Hepatitis C and take steps to treat it. Enter Treato, a website that can help people suffering from Hepatitis -- and a host of other medical maladies, from AIDS to Cirrhosis -- find out what other patients are doing to alleviate their problems.
"Treato collects all the conversations about medications that have to do with your 'thing' from all over the web. They take that data, interpret it and organize it in a way that makes sense to you," says a YouTube video about the website. "That means its incredibly easy to learn which side effects other people are experiencing with their 'things' and medications, and which drugs they've switched to to get rid of their side effects."
For Hepatitis C, Treato data shows that the majority of patients are finding relief through the drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni, two popular treatments. The site reveals that there were 134,049 conversations about Hep C on the web, many about experiences or medications patients were taking, including Ribavirin, Pegasys, Harvoni, Sovaldi and Pegintron.
"Even with staggering drug pricing, breakthrough treatments Sovaldi�and Harvoni are the top mentioned treatments for Hep C," said a representative from Treato. "Additional insights show that Harvoni is mentioned in online conversations 3.8 times more than Sovaldi. Harvoni is mentioned positively online twice as much as Sovaldi. And 26 percent -- the majority of online conversations -- are happening among patients aged 50-64 years old."
A spokesperson for Treato said that "when discussing Hep C and insurance, Treato found the most popular online conversations were about how to get through the insurance denial /appeal process and having to be at a later disease state in order to get covered. When discussing Hep C and Sovaldi, 13 percent of conversations mention insurance. And when discussing Hep C and Harvoni, 20 percent of conversations mention insurance."
Winnie McCroy is the Women on the EDGE Editor, HIV/Health Editor, and Assistant Entertainment Editor for EDGE Media Network, handling all women's news, HIV health stories and theater reviews throughout the U.S. She has contributed to other publications, including The Village Voice, Gay City News, Chelsea Now and The Advocate, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
