OBJECTIVES: This research examines what value disease-focused internet forum data offers GSK, including characterizing data elements and whether linked discussion threads provide longitudinal insights into disease and patient perspectives. METHODS:  This study was a retrospective analysis using deidentified Inspire patient forum data for 2 disease areas: systemic sclerosis (“SS”) and rheumatoid arthritis (“RA”). The dataset consisted of English language posts (n=62,806), comprising 5,606 threads, spanning Jan-01-2015 to Nov-30-2015 and representing 6,548 distinct authors. A third party vendor removed PII and discussion threads were programmatically linked by a unique identifier. A random sample of 2,817 threads (50%) consisting of 21,313 posts (34%), representing 3,601 unique authors (55%) was created for curation and analysis. RESULTS:  Of the 3601 unique authors curated, 870 (24%) indicated they had been diagnosed with SS, 267 (7.4%) indicated they had RA and 54 (1.5%) indicated they had both RA and SS. For 1,975 authors (55%), we were unable to determine a diagnosis. Of the 435 (12%) remaining authors, 203 (5.6%) had other autoimmune disease as diagnosis and 232 (6.4%) were probable RA or probable SS. Patients discussed disease duration in 722 posts, and of those posts 296 (41%) indicated they had the disease for more than 10 years. 26% (n=5541) of posts were made by the patient. 13% gave medication information. 3% discussed non-medical treatments. 5% discussed medical history. 2% provided lab/imaging results. 5% were seeking information. 8% discussed burden of disease. CONCLUSIONS:  Disease-focused internet forum data provides valuable patient insights and information including: disease burden, duration of disease, medication and non-medication treatments, co-morbidities, and information being sought/provided. Additional research is required to further assess the value of longitudinal data for understanding the patient disease journey and how best to leverage these insights for drug development and safety.