Amy G.

Amy is the Assistant to the Director of Film and Television Production at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She holds a Masters in Educational Communication and Technology from New York University, and Bachelors in Film from the University of Maryland. She is developing a Web site for people with MS to learn about their disease at a pace they can control.

Amy has first-hand experience with the changing impact of technology on a person with MS. When she received her diagnosis in 1988, the Internet was not the public resource it is today. It was easy to control information gathered from books and articles.

Today's Internet is very different. "So many websites reference every possible symptom, and often cite a worse-case scenario as their first description of MS." For Amy and many others with MS, this serves as a deterrent to learning - it can frighten people off before they learn their disease may take a completely different course. Still, Amy acknowledges the strengths of this powerful tool: having access to the most current information about MS and connecting with the community is significant.

Recognizing a need, and drawing from her education and personal experience, Amy's developing an online environment with a self-directed interface that uses web-based technologies to recognize the individualized needs of the user. The content is specifically geared to people learning about their own experience with a chronic illnesses.

Amy is working to make her ideal a reality. "By making something individualized and customizable you do more than remove the fear - you put the user in control of the process, which makes a world of difference."

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