Reimagining the infrastructure of cancer care

As a medical oncologist working at both Bellevue Hospital and Flatiron Health, I see firsthand how the details I document in patient charts—like the date of a cancer diagnosis or the results of genomic testing—are more than just notes for immediate care or billing. These details hold the potential to shape research, guide treatment decisions, and help connect patients with clinical trials that could change their lives. As advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) continue at a breakneck pace, one of the things I'm most excited about (apart from AI writing my patient notes!) is the ability of large language models (LLMs) to make sense of the complex clinical information buried in medical charts and pull out the critical details that can help enable these promising applications. For example, a patient with stage 4 lung cancer might be a candidate for a clinical trial based on a specific gene mutation, but if that result is tucked away in a scanned PDF or long visit note, it may not be surfaced in time for their oncologist to act. In a fast-moving field like oncology, where trial slots are limited and treatment windows are narrow, a delay in finding this information can mean the difference between accessing a cutting-edge therapy or missing the opportunity altogether. At Flatiron, we’ve pioneered the use of LLMs to extract clinically meaningful information from the EHR, making de-identified patient data more accessible and actionable. The ultimate goal? To ensure every person’s experience can help inform and improve outcomes for people with cancer. The enthusiasm around using LLMs for EHR data curation is well deserved—these models are transforming how we identify and utilize clinical insights at scale. AI and machine learning (ML) have the power to process vast amounts of patient data rapidly and extract meaningful insights from hundreds of pages of documents. As a result, we can more nimbly understand evolving standards of care and the efficacy of new treatments in real time.  But what often goes unnoticed is the meticulous, behind-the-scenes work required to ensure LLMs are producing critical data points that are not only scalable but also accurate, complete, and helpful. Let’s take a closer look at how a single piece of clinical data travels from a clinician’s keyboard to become key evidence advancing research and informing patient care.

Flatiron Health, a healthtech company transforming clinical research through technology that integrates research into everyday care, today announced a collaboration with NRG Oncology (NRG), a clinical research consortium in the National Cancer Institute (NCI)’s National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) comprised of over 1,300 worldwide research sites, to deploy Flatiron Clinical Pipe™ in a multicenter NRG clinical trial. Flatiron Clinical Pipe™, a cutting-edge electronic health record (EHR) to electronic data capture (EDC) connector, improves efficiency and reduces time and effort of clinical study data entry. This collaboration broadens Flatiron Clinical Pipe™ use cases to include NCTN sponsored studies—applying Flatiron’s EHR-to-EDC technology to reduce the burden on NRG clinical trial site teams, streamline data management, and accelerate study timelines. In parallel, NRG and Flatiron will conduct a correlative study to assess the efficiency of Flatiron Clinical Pipe™ use compared to traditional data entry methods. “Collaborating with NRG Oncology, a leading research consortium within the National Clinical Trials Network, is an incredible opportunity to create a new trial experience—unlocking higher data quality and more efficient data acquisition with Flatiron Clinical Pipe,” said Alex Deyle, General Manager of Clinical Research at Flatiron Health. “By putting our cutting-edge technology in the hands of more research teams, Flatiron and NRG will enhance our ongoing efforts to improve efficiency and reduce time and effort of study data capture, ultimately accelerating evidence generation and improvements in care for people with cancer.” Research published in the journal ESMO Real World Data and Digital Oncology, found that teams using Flatiron Clinical Pipe™ were able to accurately transfer thousands of data points, representing completion of hundreds of case report form (CRF), with the average time of 37 seconds for a user to launch, complete, and submit a CRF, representing significant time savings for data entry over the course of a trial.1 Reducing the amount of time spent on administrative tasks to drive more efficient clinical trials enables providers to spend more meaningful time with patients, improving the care experience for all involved. “We are very excited about the rich potential of this collaboration with our partners at Flatiron, a leader in healthcare systems technology. Enhancing clinical trial efficiency with Clinical Pipe, and other emerging technologies, holds the promise of delivering NRG clinical trial results to our patients with greater accuracy and speed, helping us deliver on the promise of less suffering from cancer through operational advances.” Alexandra Thomas MD, FACP, Vice Chair NRG Protocol Operation Management For more information, visit https://flatiron.com/clinical-research-solutions/clinical-pipe/

Flatiron Health, a healthtech company transforming clinical research through technology that integrates research into everyday care, today announced a collaboration to enable Flatiron Clinical Pipe™ at the University of Colorado Cancer Center (CU Cancer Center) and their clinical care partner UCHealth. Flatiron Clinical Pipe™, a cutting-edge electronic health record (EHR) to electronic data capture (EDC) connector, improves efficiency and reduces time and effort of clinical study data capture. 

Breast cancer treatment and research have evolved dramatically over the last few decades with the discovery of novel biomarkers, the development and approval of new therapies, and a deeper understanding of the disease itself.While it is an exciting time for breast cancer research and clinical practice, the rate at which the field is evolving poses challenges for clinicians who are trying to adapt their practice to a rapidly changing landscape as well for those in drug development.In this article, we’ll discuss how real-world evidence (RWE) can answer questions that inform drug discovery, development and clinical practice. We’ll share three case studies that illustrate the role that RWE can play in advancing breast cancer research and providing answers to many lingering questions about the future of cancer care.