Wading through mountains of clinical data searching for answers to some of medicine’s biggest conundrums is no picnic, but a new collaboration between PicnicHealth and Komodo Health is aiming to make that process a lot more straightforward.
The companies will combine their respective real-world evidence databases to support deeper research into complex illnesses like multiple sclerosis and hemophilia. Ultimately, the partners hope their combined resources will help improve not only the medical field’s understanding of these diseases, but also their treatment options and pathways.
PicnicHealth gives patients a place to organize all of their health records from every clinician they’ve visited over time as well as genetic sequencing data, insurance claims records and information gathered by consumer health apps. Once the company has compiled all of these disparate data, the patient can choose to opt in to sharing their de-identified information for clinical research purposes.
Scientists can then use PicnicHealth’s research platform to sort through this anonymized information to build data sets for research projects, identify potential study participants and observe overall trends in the healthcare journeys of patients with specific conditions.
RELATED: Roche, Genentech turn to PicnicHealth to tap multiple sclerosis patient data
Komodo Health, meanwhile, has built its own repository of clinical data for life science and healthcare research purposes. The Healthcare Map uses artificial intelligence to analyze the health data of more than 325 million patients to locate potential areas of improvement throughout the U.S. healthcare system.
Last month, Komodo unveiled its Sentinel software, which lets life sciences researchers feed their own real-world data into the Komodo Healthcare Map and develop new AI algorithms and processes to draw more insights from patient behaviors and treatment patterns.
That’s exactly what PicnicHealth will do through its new agreement with Komodo. The Healthcare Map’s Sentinel technology will allow PicnicHealth’s research clients to perform deeper analyses on the de-identified patient data in its existing research platform, focusing specifically on studying heterogeneous diseases that require highly personalized treatments.
“Through this collaboration, we will pool our combined capabilities to work toward a deeper understanding of patient histories, treatment patterns and therapeutic outcomes in the real world,” Noga Leviner, CEO and co-founder of PicnicHealth, said in a statement.
Leviner continued, “We are excited to be tapping into the breadth and depth of Komodo’s Healthcare Map to drive groundbreaking clinical research that can ultimately benefit patients suffering from complex diseases.”
RELATED: Healthcare map maker Komodo Health inks data sharing deal with Blue Health Intelligence
Both Komodo and PicnicHealth’s efforts to create what Komodo CEO Arif Nathoo called “a full picture” of healthcare are supported by recent funding rounds. Last fall, PicnicHealth snagged $25 million in a series B financing led by Felicis Ventures, while also revealing a previously unannounced $10 million series A two years before.
This past March, Komodo raised a whopping $220 million in new venture capital led by Tiger Global Management. Around the same time, the healthcare mapmaker also inked a deal with Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical wing, Janssen Research & Development, to support its clinical trial efforts.