Oracle has launched the cloud-based Health Sciences Network to evaluate research protocols and recruit participants for clinical trials.
Oracle has introduced Health
Sciences Network, a set of cloud applications that will de-identify patient
data, link health care organizations with information from clinical trials and
screen patients for participation.
The company developed the applications with
the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Aurora Health Care, a health care
system in eastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.
Announced June 25, the suite includes Health
Sciences Protocol Validator, an application that allows clinical research teams
to screen patients across multiple health systems for participation in trials.
Protocol Validator works with Oracle Health
Sciences Patient Recruiter to enable clinical investigators to identify patient
cohorts and determine the suitability of protocols. The applications allow
researchers to recruit patients based on genomic features and clinical
characteristics so they would be the most relevant subjects for clinical
studies.
Validating protocols and recruiting patients
are two areas that contribute to budget variances and delays in development of
drug therapies, according to Oracle.
With Health Sciences Network, Oracle aims to
accelerate research from concept to patient recruitment. It will also allow
targeted therapies to come to market more quickly, the company reported.
For the development of Health Sciences
Network, Aurora contributed de-identified electronic health records (EHRs)
along with DNA samples from a biobank started four years ago, Randall
Lambrecht, senior vice president of research at Aurora, said in a statement.
By using the cloud-based applications,
medical research for new drugs can be accelerated by as much as a year,
Lambrecht said in his statement.
UPMC is looking to invest in
platforms like Health Sciences Network that provide care based on personalized
data, Dr. Steve Shapiro, chief medical and scientific officer for UPMC, said in
a statement.
Oracle is a member of the Partnership to
Advance Clinical Electronic Research (PACeR),
a New York-based consortium of providers, research institutions, pharmaceutical
companies and technology vendors. The group will use Health Sciences Network to
allow medical centers to evaluate data capabilities and identify new methods
for identifying groups of trial participants, or cohorts. PACeR will also use
the application for modeling protocols and collecting clinical data for
research.
"Oracle's expertise will greatly benefit
our multi-stakeholder collaboration and help us realize our vision of enabling
secure, real-time access to de-identified patient data across the health care
and life sciences ecosystem," Dr. David A. Krusch, chief medical
information officer for the University of Rochester Medical Center and chairman
of PACeR's project leadership committee, said in a statement.
"To accelerate delivery of safer,
more effective and personalized treatments, organizations across the health
care value chain are increasingly seeking new ways to work together," Neil
de Crescenzo, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Health
Sciences, said in a statement.
Health Sciences Network will build a secure
bridge among bio-pharma companies, health systems and regulators, he said.
It conforms to the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
regulations on privacy and information security, Oracle reported.
On June 26, Oracle launched a new version of
Health Sciences Translational Research Center, a platform that allows
researchers to target patient populations with similar characteristics based on
EHRs and administrative, genomic and proteomic data. The software helps
scientists identify biomarkers for clinical research.
Brian T. Horowitz is a freelance technology and health writer as well as a copy editor. Brian has worked on the tech beat since 1996 and covered health care IT and rugged mobile computing for eWEEK since 2010. He has contributed to more than 20 publications, including Computer Shopper, Fast Company, FOXNews.com, More, NYSE Magazine, Parents, ScientificAmerican.com, USA Weekend and Womansday.com, as well as other consumer and trade publications. Brian holds a B.A. from Hofstra University in New York.
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