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Thought leadership and innovation for the Pharmaceutical Industry

A number of players are working on combining patient health information with their own innovative virtual models, fine-tuning relevant the data for effective use. Where clinical trials may not be possible – or effective – these tools could become a viable alternative.

By Louise Kelly on Aug 6, 2013

In 2011 Pfizer became the first company to launch a fully digitalized clinical trial, including recruitment through social media, at-home drug delivery, and mobile and web-based tools for all data reporting.

The trial failed due to difficulties with patient recruitment, but Head of Clinical Innovation at Pfizer, Craig Lipset, is nonetheless adamant that virtual trials will shape the future of the industry – improving engagement with both patients and healthcare professionals.  “Technology is a new way of putting all the information together,” he has said, “It will disrupt the entire model of getting clinical trials conducted around hospitals and trial sites.”

Virtual intelligence

And the popularity for these new developments in the market continues to grow, according to Dr. Peter Alperin, Vice President of Medicine at Archimedes, who has watched the user base of the independent company expand. Archimedes have specialised in virtual models for clinical development since the 1990s, recently expanding their offering to incorporate real world data.

As we gather more data, we’re able to make prediction models better and more accurate in predicting what a patient’s future risk of an adverse event will be

Since November 2011, Archimedes has been developing tools for the healthcare space which use mathematical algorithms to predict a variety of different healthcare outcomes. Taking ‘real’ patient data, Indigo seeks to predict the individual risk of a number of eventualities (i.e. heart attack/stroke) and then employs computer simulation models to calculate what the expected benefit would be if the patient were to change certain behaviours or to take certain medications. Drawing patient data predominantly from electronic records or health information exchanges, Dr. Alperin maintains the value of such tools will increase as the amount of digital health information increases. “As we gather more data, we’re able to make prediction models better and more accurate in predicting what a patient’s future risk of an adverse event will be.”

Archimedes is also developing tools for those in the life sciences space wishing to identify and analyse particular subsets of the population in order to determine specific rates of events and other statistical elements within a larger data pool.  These tools will help lower the cost of pharmaceutical development.  “It’s an instantaneous and real-time query engine that helps a population manager or life sciences professional understand the set of data in front of them,” says Dr. Alperin. “Instead of taking any single piece of individual’s data, this tool can draw from a larger pool of information, particular subgroups of the population, and discern any consequential effects if one variable is changed in that data.”

When data makes sense

As the ways and means of accessing data have changed over the decades, the definition – and sourcing – of RWD has become somewhat varied across the marketplace. Previously certain government agencies would invest significant energies into collecting and curating relevant data, and then make this information available to researchers in a practical, accessible format. However, over the years, the popularity of usage of electronic health records, health information exchanges and the consumer-based interactions on health issues over the web has allowed many companies gain access to data from the ‘real world’.

It is really important to these different organisations to be able to not just hold the data, but to be able to actually do something with that data

Archimedes seized this opportunity and morphed their existing tools in order to take advantage of the increasingly wider range of data, according to Dr. Alperin, a development that has considerably sped up the data collection process. “Now we contract with the companies that hold this data themselves and we provide them with our tools and value added analytics to make sense of that data. It is really important to these different organisations to be able to not just hold the data, but to be able to actually do something with that data.” 

Because compiling lots of data does not necessarily equate to intelligent information.  Indeed, as Dr. Alperin quips, “it’s the price of admission”. Any forward-thinking healthcare organisation will want to identify the set of people under their remit who will benefit in terms of reducing a certain type of risk or disease stake.  However, relaying this information in an individualised fashion allows the patient not only to understand what’s important to them in a general sense but also what’s important to them in a very specific sense, says Dr. Alperin.  “Patients become more likely to do the things they are supposed to do when that information is put into an individual context,” he says.

With these tools, a healthcare provider has the ability to first target the right segment of the population and then to deliver the information in an individualised manner. This should promote improved adherence and compliance to recommendations among patients. But the health outcomes of the patient – naturally the main priority – is not the only benefit usage of tools such as those offered by Archimedes can have.  For a drug developer and manufacturer, having the appropriate models in place should allow more efficient analysis of data, enabling smarter decisions about clinical trial design to be made and thus fattening the bottom line as the entire process can be completed in a more cost effective manner. 

Fast forward

As mentioned above, the communications space is changing just as rapidly as the requirement for pro-active healthcare is rising. For example, experts at the healthcare modelling firm are continuing to develop their existing tools so that they are more applicable to a wider variety of clinical conditions, encompass a higher number of hypothetical interventions (different medications, different behaviour changes, etc.) – and are more accessible for different user types.  “We’re currently developing a tool which will allow individuals to look at information directly without an intermediary – a consumer facing version that could be accessed over the web,” Dr. Alperin tells eyeforpharma.

Companies like Archimedes reflect a growing trend where ambitious minds attempt to evolve with the times and address this need for change in innovative and alternative ways – convenient for the healthcare industry and the patient.