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Ontada, a McKesson business that provides oncology real-world data (RWD), clinical education, and point of care technologies for the oncology space, is collaborating with Datavant, a health data platform, to include Ontada’s data in their health ecosystem.1 The goal of the partnership is to assist life science companies with swiftly accessing Ontada’s real-world data, which in turn would allow for quicker discovery of insights could help improve lives of cancer patients.
Specifically, Ontada’s RWD offers information during the entire patient journey, with access to data from more than 2.4 million patients across more than 80 tumor types from The US Oncology Network (The Network). The Network is an organization of independent, community-based practices whose goal is enhance local cancer care while also improving patient outcomes.
The company’s proprietary database is fed by The Network, which treats one in five cancer patients in the United States and has knowledge of community settings, an environment where 85% of patients are treated. This deal allows Ontada’s partners to also have access to this database.
“As the importance of real-world data in oncology continues to grow and the volume of data continues to increase, evaluating new data sources can be time-consuming,” said Amy O’Sullivan, senior vice president and chief research officer at Ontada. “Our life sciences partners need a quick way to identify data sources that will meet their needs and support their efforts to transform cancer treatment. Through our collaboration with Datavant, we’re enabling acceleration of fit-for-purpose data identification and time to insights, whether they be for generating real-world evidence, shaping commercial strategies, or developing new drugs.”
And as alluded to previously, time is of the essence when it comes accessing cancer treatments, so having the proper patient data that can ultimately lead to their development is critical.
“Anyone who has been impacted by cancer knows that access to new treatments cannot happen fast enough,” noted Arnaub Chatterjee, president and GM of life sciences, ecosystem, and public sector at Datavant. “We look forward to leveraging the breadth of the Datavant real world data ecosystem alongside Ontada’s community-level insights to power oncology health economics and outcomes research—and to support all who are working to bring the next generation of life-altering oncology therapies to patients sooner.”
This past October, Ontada partnered with Microsoft,2 which states that as part of the agreement, it would utilize the tech company’s artificial intelligence abilities. At the time, Tyler Bryson, Microsoft’s corporate vice president, US health & public sector industries, commented that “Our collaboration with Ontada is providing critical insights into the full capabilities of Microsoft Azure AI and its potential to exponentially increase their computing power and process this valuable data at scale. Working closely with the Ontada team, Azure AI has significantly improved Ontada’s ability to extract valuable data and clinical information quickly and efficiently. As we continue to evolve our cutting-edge technology, we look forward to working with Ontada to further enhance the quality of the real-world data they are able to generate.”
References
1. Ontada Collaborates with Datavant to Enable Faster Access to Market-Leading Oncology Insights. Business Wire. November 12, 2024. Accessed November 15, 2024. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241112875795/en/Ontada-Collaborates-with-Datavant-to-Enable-Faster-Access-to-Market-Leading-Oncology-Insights
2. Ontada Collaborates with Microsoft to Transform Unstructured Oncology Data with Azure OpenAI Technology. Ontonda. October 17, 2024. Accessed November 15, 2024. https://www.ontada.com/press-releases/ontada-collaborates-with-microsoft-to-transform-unstructured-oncology-data-with-azure-openai-technology/