Rare disease patient matchmaking: development and outcomes of an internet case-finding strategy in the Undiagnosed Diseases Network.

Background: Although clinician, researcher, and patient resources for matchmaking exist, finding similar patients remains an obstacle for rare disease diagnosis. The goals of this study were to develop and test the effectiveness of an Internet case-finding strategy and identify factors associated with increased matching within a rare disease population.

Methods: Public web pages were created for consented participants.