PRA Health is tapping Deep Lens and the Microsoft Azure platform in matchmaking cancer patients to the right trials to speed up recruitment.
The contract research organization will use Deep Lens’ so-called VIPER patient screening platform, which is used by cancer centers, integrated delivery networks and community oncology networks, to identify and match oncology patients to studies “who would have otherwise fallen through the cracks and missed the opportunity to enroll.”
Under the pact, financial details of which have not been shared, once patients have been qualified for trials, the VIPER system will refer those patients to PRA’s mobile health platform, run by Azure, to provide “an end-to-end patient-centric screening and trial management experience for providers globally.”
“More than 14,000 oncology trials are currently recruiting patients, but estimates are that only three to five percent of eligible patients actually participate,” said Kent Thoelke, chief scientific officer at PRA.
“The challenges facing clinical trial recruitment are multifaceted, and sponsors have been unable to determine where specific patients are in order to match them to studies; that is about to change. Using Deep Lens’ VIPER technology, the patient identification process will be streamlined by instantly analyzing data within electronic health records, pathology systems and genomic profiles to enable matching of cancer patients with suitable clinical trials.”
PRA and Microsoft already have a deep relationship and teamed up in 2020 to launch a COVID-19 monitoring app, Health Harmony, ramping up the service in the summer by tapping the Microsoft Healthcare Bot, an AI-based chatbot that can recognize and respond to COVID-19-related questions.
Deep Lens is also ramping up the CRO deals; this pact comes after it penned a deal with Worldwide Clinical Trials last March, also with a focus on speeding up cancer trial recruitment. The company exited stealth back in the fall of 2018 with $3.2 million in seed money.
“Deep Lens has grown dramatically with unique cloud technology and a business model that takes risk out of its deployment, and it has taken the vision of PRA to see the potential for a truly unique solution to come to market,” added Simon Arkell, co-founder and president at Deep Lens.
“With a global, industry-leading partner like PRA collaborating with Microsoft, we expect to exponentially grow our global footprint while dramatically increasing the success rates in oncology research. In turn, this will allow trial sponsors full visibility into the patient screening process so they can get their treatments to market much faster. Together, we will continue our mission to find the right patients for the right trials at the right time.”