Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG) and Intermountain Healthcare company Navican inked an agreement today to launch a precision health informatics solution aimed at improving outcomes for late stage cancer patients.
The program is slated to leverage Navican‘s TheraMap Precision Cancer Care services and Philips’ IntelliSpace Genomics platform, which uses Illumina‘s next-gen genomic sequencing technologies.
At Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare’s Precision Genomics Laboratory, researchers analyze the genetic makeup of each patient’s cancer and a team of molecular tumor specialists and treatment navigators review the tests and determine how to most effectively proceed with treatment.
“Despite major technological advances in tumor sequencing capabilities and laboratories, gaps remain between these advanced diagnostics and actually getting patients onto the appropriate therapeutic paths,” Intermountain Precision Genomics’ executive director Dr. Lincoln Nadauld said in prepared remarks. “Through this joint approach we are bringing together the latest technologies with the aim to provide community hospitals and treatment centers worldwide with the opportunity to implement Intermountain’s best practice in precision medicine into their everyday care practices.”
“Through Navican this approach and all services, including continuous remote access to Intermountain’s tumor specialists and treatment navigators, are offered to community hospitals, independent hospital networks and other Integrated Delivery Networks,” Navican CEO Ingo Chakravarty added. “Patients are based in the community, across the United States and around the world, so should precision medicine, being accessible to all, not just a few.”
Navican plans to use Philips’ IntelliSpace Genomics to support the implementation and scaling of the precision medicine program. The platform provides integrated workflows to streamline collaboration across hospitals, according to the group.
“Together with Navican we aim to provide a seamless end-to-end solution using the latest technologies available,” Philips Genomics GM Louis Culot said. “Hospitals and health systems will be able to send their patient samples to Navican, for advanced molecular analysis, interpretation and guidance by Intermountain. At the same time they will have access to Intermountain’s advanced services while genome informatics and data flow are fully implemented through Philips IntelliSpace Genomics, and can be further integrated with local EMR and lab systems.”
The precision medicine program will 1st be available within the Intermountain Healthcare network, but the group expects the solution to be available for other hospitals in the 2nd half of this year.
