SAS launches clinical data repository and signs up AZ for synthetic data tech

Data sciences tech firm SAS has released a “clinical data” repository it says will help drug researchers uncover trends that can lead to ground-breaking treatments.

The repository – which is named the clinical acceleration repository - was unveiled at DIA 2024 in San Diego, California last week. SAS described it as a cloud-based system designed to manage clinical research data as well as information from other sources.

According to the firm, the repository supports the use of third-party programming languages and tools. It is also designed to allow data integration from multiple sources, including electronic data capture systems, in-house clinical data management systems, labs and contract research organizations.

Gail Stephens, vice president of Health Care and Life Sciences at SAS, said the system “enables researchers and data scientists to better manage their clinical data and empowers organizations to make informed business decisions.

“Accelerating and improving the clinical development process helps bring therapies to market sooner and strengthens the bottom line for life sciences and health organizations,” she said.

The repository is built on SAS’ artificial intelligence (AI) driven Viya analytics platform, which is designed to help researchers examine data as efficiently as possible.

Synthetic data

SAS also shared details of a separate technology designed to generate synthetic training data for AI models used in healthcare and clinical research.

The technology – known as SAS data maker – is designed to generate “synthetic tabular data that statistically represents original training data without compromising sensitive patient health information” according to SAS.

Shadi Shahin, SAS’ vice president of Product Strategy, said the tech uses “AI models to create statistically accurate data points that truly augment existing data and can capture countless different scenarios, helping organizations better forecast outcomes so they can anticipate their businesses' changing needs.

"This is particularly valuable in instances where specific real-world data is hard to come by or when there's a need to detect rare case scenarios in highly regulated areas like health care and life sciences,” Shahin said.

AstraZeneca will use the new tech according to the UK drug firm’s chief data officer, Brian Dummann.
"Synthetic data can enhance our ability to make informed decisions from critical data, and thus has the real potential to help accelerate drug discovery and development, ultimately benefiting patients around the world.

"We look forward to leveraging SAS Data Maker and streamlining how data scientists can access synthetic data for their initiatives."

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