nference, a science-first software company transforming health care by making biomedical data computable, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, a leading academic medical center, have announced a strategic agreement aimed at advancing research through the deployment of nference’s state-of-the-art federated clinical analytics platform. By leveraging the power of federated AI and machine learning, this collaboration will expand clinical insights in key research areas.
Combining VUMC’s extensive longitudinal, multi-modal data with nference’s federated AI platform will enable both parties to advance real-world scientific insights for drug discovery and patient care. This platform will provide Vanderbilt researchers and others in the life sciences community with an increasingly diverse dataset, which is crucial in understanding and addressing the varied patient needs across the healthcare spectrum. The agreement highlights both nference and VUMC’s commitment to using the most advanced technology to accelerate medical research and improve patient care.
“nference’s advanced capability to utilize information gathered from electronic health records, imaging data, and digital pathology data, when combined with our historic and deep experience and leadership in biomedical informatics and health information technology, allows us to advance the understanding of devastating diseases while accelerating biomedical research,” said Jeff Balser, MD, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer for VUMC and Dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Leveraging multimodal data, including imaging and digital pathology, offers a holistic view of complex diseases. As part of this agreement, Pramana, a nference company modernizing the pathology sector, will lead efforts to digitize VUMC’s glass pathology slides across oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Implementing Pramana’s digital pathology solution allows VUMC researchers to access a new modality of digitized patient data.
“Joining with nference is a VUMC strategic initiative to improve health care for patients everywhere through accelerated discoveries derived from our de-identified electronic health data. Importantly, VUMC’s de-identified clinical data is maintained in a secure VUMC environment that allows our investigators and companies to develop and use algorithm models for innovation. The data-derived knowledge will address unmet medical needs across many diseases,” said Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, Chief Scientific and Strategy Officer for VUMC and holder of the Brock Family Directorship. The Brock Family Center for Applied Innovation at VUMC is facilitating this collaboration.
“VUMC is a pivotal new member of our federated network that will expand the diversity of our clinical datasets, helping researchers to better understand underserved populations,” said Murali Aravamudan, co-founder and CEO of nference. “The depth and longitudinal nature of this high-quality data will provide crucial insights into the complexities of disease progression over time. As a result, our platform will accelerate research, drug development and clinical trials, paving the way for advancements in health care.”
nSights, nference’s AI-enabled clinical analytics platform, offers a dataset across all therapeutic areas, including, but not limited to, cardiology, immunology and rare diseases, enabling life science, biopharmaceutical and medical device companies to leverage real-world data across the product lifecycle. Agreements with premier academic medical centers, like VUMC, have resulted in a rich repository of clinical data, enabling nference to develop algorithms that unlock the potential of federated, de-identified health care data with the power to drive unprecedented insights into human health.
