About a month ago, I received a request from one of my practice partners.  They are working with a patient with a number of chronic, hard-to-treat medical illnesses that may or may not be part of a single syndrome or underlying problem.  Despite the fact that this physician is an excellent clinician, they have struggled to put the pieces together and are worried that they are missing something.

The e-mail they sent me reads “i have a patient with an odd constellation of chronic medical problems…it seems to me something might tie these together…i mentioned to the patient the crowdsourcing idea on twitter and he was open to trying this”

I have spoken with this physician, but I have not spoken personally with the patient yet.  I have not taken any steps to crowdsource this patient’s illness because I am honestly not sure how best to do it…or even if…