The Mayo Clinic announced a new partnership with IBM’s Watson data analytics platform that promises to match patients to the best clinical trials. The Clinic made the announcement at its annual Transform conference in Rochester, Minnesota.
Starting in 2015, what IBM calls cognitive computing will be introduced into clinical use, specifically on cancer trials.
“In an area like cancer —where time is of the essence — the speed and accuracy that Watson offers will allow us to develop an individualized treatment plan more efficiently so we can deliver exactly the care that the patient needs,” said Steven Alberts, chair of medical oncology at Mayo Clinic, in a statement.
At any given time, Mayo Clinic is conducting over 8,000 human studies in addition to the 170,000 that are ongoing worldwide. Watson’s computing, officials said, will help sift through available Mayo clinical trials and ensure that more patients are best matched with promising clinical trial options.
Currently, many trials at the Mayo Clinic, and within healthcare in general, go uncompleted because of a lack of sufficient enrollment – just 5 percent of all patients take part in studies, despite best efforts at the Mayo Clinic. Nationwide, the rate is a mere 3 percent. The Mayo Clinic anticipates it can boost its rate to 10 percent
Researchers hope the increased speed also will speed new discoveries.
Clinical trials provide patients with access to new and emerging treatments, yet enrolling participants in trials is one of the more difficult parts of clinical research. Currently it is done manually, with clinical coordinators sorting through patient records and conditions, trying to match them with the requirements of a given study protocol.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“With shorter times from initiation to completion of trials, our research teams will have the capacity for deeper, more complete investigations,” said Nicholas LaRusso, a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and the project lead for the Mayo-IBM Watson collaboration.
IBM will design a version of Watson specifically for the Mayo Clinic.
The new Watson system is being trained to analyze patient records and clinical trial criteria in order to determine appropriate matches for patients. Mayo Clinic and IBM said they are discussing other applications and clinical trials for Watson in the future.
