Flatiron maintains dealmaking pace with patient-reported outcome data hookup

Vector Oncology CEO Mike Choukas

Flatiron Health is having a busy end to 2014. One week after striking a deal with Foundation Medicine ($FMI), the Google ($GOOG) Ventures-backed cancer analytics firm has hooked up with Vector Oncology to advance its clinical research and real-world evidence activities.

The latest deal combines the cancer electronic medical record (EMR) system Flatiron acquired in the wake of its $130 million fundraising with Vector's patient monitoring technology. Real-world data is at the heart of the combination. Flatiron will feed data from Vector's web-based platform--which tracks 86 patient-reported symptoms during and between physician visits--into its EMR. The addition of the data could give physicians greater insight into patient well-being and also has research implications.

Flatiron and Vector plan to run collaborative health economics and outcomes research projects, the results from which are expected to have implications for clinical research programs and real-world data gathering. "The integration of Flatiron's OncoEMR with our Patient Care Monitor will create an unmatched source of real world clinical and patient-reported outcomes intelligence," Vector CEO Mike Choukas said in a statement.

The deal means that in the space of one week Flatiron has gained access to sources of data about two key areas of cancer research and care, namely tumor genetics and quality-of-life measures. Stratification of cancer into many diseases that are defined as much by mutations as tumor locations has made genetic data critical to research and care. And quality-of-life data are an increasingly useful way to show cash-strapped payers a drug represents good value.

- read the release