Philadelphia-based clinical decision support startup Oncora Medical is collaborating with University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston in a study to help radiation oncologists develop personalized treatment plans with the goal of improving outcomes, according to a news release. The Phase 1 study will focus on data from 2,000 breast cancer patients and last three to nine months.
Oncora’s Precision Radiation Oncology Platform will analyze data from MD Anderson’s electronic medical record system, tumor registry, radiation therapy planning system, and Brocade — a Web-based clinical documentation tool for medical records developed by MD Anderson Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology, Dr. Benjamin Smith.
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Oncora will be tasked with creating interoperability between its Precision Radiation Oncology Platform and Brocade to explore the potential value of a combined product, the release said.
“Through this alliance, we hope to improve workflows and processes for radiation oncologists and simultaneously give radiation oncologists access to better information to support real-time, precision medical decision making,” Smith said in the release.
Although most people think of precision medicine as targeted therapy, Lindsay noted that the company defines precision medicine as the “right treatment for the right patient at the right time” and wants to expand the conventionally accepted definition beyond drugs and diagnostics.
The study was a year in the making and will be Oncora’s biggest endeavor to date, Lindsay said.
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“Our software needs to access data across multiple software systems at a center that treats nearly 10,000 patients per year. That is part of the reason why we spent so long planning for the partnership. We want everything to go smoothly and we want to deliver MD Anderson a seamlessly integrated product.”
The study will also assess physician utilization and quality of the company’s predictive modeling efforts. But the ultimate criteria for success will be the deployment of a “functioning product” at MD Anderson, noted Lindsay.
The second phase of the of the collaboration with MD Anderson will expand the study to all cancer types treated with radiation.
One of the challenges in healthcare is de-siloing data, particularly for clinical decision support. When it comes to cancer treatment, radiation oncology data risks being siloed in different hospital software systems, which makes it tough to collect and analyze. Oncora Medical views its approach as a way to make predictive analytics and precision radiation oncology succeed.
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