Why does AI matter in our business?
AI is now being applied to large volumes of data from increasingly diverse sources across the entire oncology value chain.
AI algorithms can see through the millions of studies and publications, thousands of clinical trials, millions of parameters of patient medical records, while keeping all of the patient's specifications and mutations in mind. IBM's Watson for Oncology has an advanced ability to analyze the meaning and context of structured and unstructured data in clinical notes and reports that may be critical to selecting a treatment pathway. Then by combining attributes from the patient's file with clinical expertise, external research and data, the program identifies potential treatment plans for a patient.
CGI's recent partnership with Mendel Health (Mendel.ai) will enable AI in precision medicine to drive personalized treatment and accelerate clinical trial matching for cancer care. Mendel Health is a breakthrough artificial intelligence company focused on using the Mendel.ai deep learning engine to accelerate and constantly update clinical trial matching for patients.
According to the National Cancer Institute less than 5% of patients with cancer participate in clinical trials. Research!America, the largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance committed to making research improve health, found in a national survey of over 1,000 patients that less than 7 of 10 health care providers talk about clinical trials or research, while only 54% of patients believe that the care they are receiving is based on the best or most recent advancements from research.
CGI and Mendel will be actively working together to integrate Mendel.ai capabilities for clinicians, oncologists, pathologists, as well as cancer centers and hospitals with CGI's disease-focused reports and testing results. CGI and Mendel will be among the first in laboratory medicine to provide real time, constant clinical trial matching that integrates biomarker and genomic data with electronic health records and clinical observations.
CGI recently announced a collaboration with Lantern Pharma, a highly innovative precision therapeutics biopharma company exclusively focused on accelerating the drug approval process utilizing AI and big data. The collaboration is focused on drug rescue and repurposing – a high-growth segment expected to significantly reduce development costs and contribute to as much as 25 to 30 percent of new therapeutic approvals .
The collaboration will leverage CGI's biomarker discovery, clinical trial testing, and companion diagnostic development capabilities along with Lantern's big data and AI-driven development approach. The initial focus of the collaboration will be discovery services and further development of Lantern's lead compounds, including the clinical-stage drug candidate Tavocept (LP-300) for non-small cell lung cancer .
We believe AI is going to transform the medical sector beyond recognition and will entail changes to every facet of modern health care, including full adoption of electronic medical records, FDA procedures and classifications, easy access to DNA sequencing, etc. Success hinges on a multidisciplinary approach that combines strong AI expertise, laboratory / technical skills, and present day health care ecosystem cognizance. And, by leveraging AI-enabled solutions, we believe such adoption will help drive the CGI value proposition as a critical and preferred partner in oncology diagnostics.
Stay tuned. This is the first in a series of AI-oriented editorials. We plan to cover further specific developments and more details about CGI's AI-driven collaborations and approaches in future Shared Insights.