In an attempt to better manage the seeming deluge of big data in healthcare, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University have teamed up to form the Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance.
The three academic organizations aim to integrate more seamlessly data from EHRs, diagnostic imaging, genomic profiles, insurance records and even data from wearables.
With the collaboration, the three institutions also hope to create and advance technologies around “data-heavy” healthcare innovation, perhaps resulting in spin-off companies that could boost economic activity around the burgeoning data and digital health sectors.
The alliance, funded by UPMC, will see its work carried out by Pitt-led and CMU-led centers, with participation from all three institutions. Pitt will contribute health science research, Carnegie Mellon will apply computer science and machine learning and UPMC will apply its expertise in clinical care, patient data and commercialization expertise, officials said.
The new research centers at CMU and Pitt will be funded over the next six years by UPMC and also will benefit from several hundred million dollars in existing research grants at all three institutions. Initially, the Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance will include two research and development centers: the Center for Machine Learning and Health, led by founding director Eric Xing, Ph.D., a CMU professor in the Department of Machine Learning; and the Center for Commercial Applications of Healthcare Data, spearheaded by Michael Becich, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Pitt.
The machine learning center will focus on five areas: big health care data analytics; personalized medicine and disease modeling; issues of privacy, security and compliance in the context of big data; data-driven patient and provider education and training; and a new general framework for big data in health care.
The efforts could result in a smartphone app, as one possible example, that suggests the a single dietary change that can improve health based on genetic makeup and medical history. Or perhaps a physician will receive an alert when a patient enters the earliest stages of rejecting a transplanted organ and can react while the condition is most easily treatable.
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.
The second center at the University of Pittsburgh will research and invent new technology for potential use in commercial theranostics and imaging systems for patients and doctors. Some areas of focus include: personalized medicine for understanding diseases such as cancer and various lung disorders; genomics and imaging data; and methods for data capture and health care analytics. A key goal is new technologies and methods to create actionable information.
UPMC Enterprises, the commercialization arm of UPMC, will lead the efforts to turn ideas into new, for-profit companies and jobs.
