Flatiron Health will use healthcare data gathered by software firm Lifebit to support cancer drug development in a new strategic deal.
The partnership will use Lifebit’s artificial intelligence-based technologies to collect data from hospitals, healthcare providers, research organizations and clinical trials to aid drug R&D according to Arun Sujenthiran, UK clinical lead and senior medical director Flatiron Health.
“The advanced capabilities of Lifebit’s Trusted Research Environment, coupled with our focus to reimagine the infrastructure of cancer care, will enable us to unlock the potential of cancer data to support research into new therapies and help get them to patients more quickly.”
Data security will be a major focus for the collaboration according to Flatiron, which said that while healthcare data has huge potential the rules covering its use in drug research are complex.
“The sensitivity of these data requires the utmost security and privacy measures that demonstrate strict compliance with global data use regulations to ensure patient data protection and build patient confidence and trust in the use of their data for research,” it wrote.
Lifebit’s technology – called the federated Trusted Research Environment – is designed with data sensitivity in mind.
The platform – which is already used by several major research initiatives like Genomics England, the Danish National Genome Center and NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Center - brings the analysis to where the data resides without the data being moved or copied.
Sujenthiran said “the advanced capabilities of Lifebit’s Trusted Research Environment, coupled with our focus to reimagine the infrastructure of cancer care, will enable us to unlock the potential of cancer data to support research into new therapies and help get them to patients more quickly.”
The accord comes just a month after French drug firm Sanofi partnered with Flatiron in a project focused on data in cancer drug trials and research.
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