Oncology Precision Network (OPeN) Announces Data Sharing Commitments at Vice President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Summit

Intermountain Healthcare, Providence Health & Services, Stanford Cancer Institute and Syapse announce new details of the Oncology Precision Network

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, USA, June 29, 2016 /EINPresswire.com/ -- An initiative to end cancer is getting a boost from additional efforts from a newly formed data sharing network. The Oncology Precision Network (OPeN) is announcing additional commitments to bring access to precision medicine and data sharing to more health systems and cancer patients across the country. The commitment, taking place in conjunction with the Cancer Moonshot Summit in Washington, DC on June 29, was announced today by the White House.

The following commitment statement was released by the White House in a Fact Sheet on June 29, and highlighted by Vice President Joe Biden in his introductory comments:

Intermountain Healthcare, Stanford Cancer Institute, Providence Health & Services, and Syapse have joined together to launch OPeN, the Oncology Precision Network. OPeN will advance cancer care through sharing of cancer genomics data, rapidly bringing the most promising treatment insights to cancer patients and physicians with the potential of increasing access to clinical trials. With its current membership, OPeN comprises data and physicians across 11 states, 79 hospitals and 800 clinics, and will impact 50,000 new cancer cases per year.

OPeN pledges to expand its impact across the United States by onboarding at least five new healthcare systems in the next 12 months, focusing on community healthcare systems outside of the currently-served states in order to bring the best quality cancer care to patients in other geographic regions.

OPeN pledges to facilitate data access to help providers guide treatment decisions as soon as the first comprehensive data set is available, enabling a broader community of providers to leverage this new knowledge and drive more rapid progress.

OPeN pledges to bring the best cancer care to patients where they live by making clinical trials more readily available in the community. OPeN will increase access to clinical trials by matching patients from at least 20 community sites across the network to appropriate trials within 15 months.

The White House document can be accessed at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/06/28/fact-sheet-cancer-moonshot-summit-vice-president-biden-announces-new

In his final State of the Union address, President Barack Obama tasked Vice President Biden with heading up a new national effort, the Cancer Moonshot. The ultimate goal is to double the rate of progress—to make a decade's worth of advances in cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care in five years—to ultimately end cancer as we know it.

“The Moonshot cannot be achieved by one person, one organization, one discipline, or even one collective approach,” said Vice President Biden. “Solving the complexities of cancer will require the formation of new alliances to defy the bounds of innovation and accelerate the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and — ultimately — a cure. It’s going to require millions of Americans speaking up and contributing what they’re able. That’s what the Cancer Moonshot Summit is all about.”

Several representatives of OPeN participated in the Cancer Moonshot Summit. Representatives included Lincoln Nadauld, MD, PhD, executive director of Precision Medicine and Precision Genomics at Intermountain Healthcare, Thomas Brown, MD, executive director of the Swedish Cancer Institute and co-chair of Providence Health & Services’ Personalized Medicine Program, Leroy Hood, MD, senior vice president and chief scientific officer for Providence Health & Services, James Ford, MD, director of Clinical Cancer Genomics at the Stanford Cancer Institute, and Jonathan Hirsch, founder and president of Syapse.

Members of the network already have a strong voice in the Cancer Moonshot conversation, making this collaboration a force in cancer treatment development and access. In June, the White House Cancer Moonshot team published a blog post by Jonathan Hirsch about the need for data sharing and the launch of OPeN: http://bit.ly/292Xc2p

In February, Dr. Nadauld and Mr. Hirsch participated in the White House Precision Medicine Initiative Summit hosted by President Barack Obama. Also in February, Intermountain’s president and CEO, Dr. Charles Sorenson, and Dr. Raj Srivastava, Intermountain’s Research medical director, met with Vice President Joe Biden and other local medical leaders in Salt Lake City to discuss cancer research and treatment. Drs. Brown and Hood participated in a discussion of cancer treatment programs with the vice president during a visit to Seattle.

Intermountain Healthcare, Stanford Cancer Institute, Providence Health & Services, and Syapse joined together earlier this June to announce the formation of OPeN. Details of that announcement are available at https://intermountainhealthcare.org/news/2016/06/pioneering-data-sharing-network-created/.


About Intermountain Healthcare
Intermountain Healthcare is a Utah-based, not-for-profit system of 22 hospitals, 185 clinics, a Medical Group with over 1,400 employed physicians and advanced practice clinicians, a health plans division called SelectHealth, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible®, Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare through high quality and sustainable costs. For more information about Intermountain, visit Intermountaninhealthcare.org.

About Providence Health & Services
Providence Health & Services is a not-for-profit Catholic health care ministry committed to providing for the needs of the communities it serves – especially for those who are poor and vulnerable. Providence's services include 34 hospitals, 600 physician clinics, senior services, supportive housing and many other health and educational services. The health system and its affiliates employ more than 82,000 people across five states – Alaska, California, Montana, Oregon and Washington – with its system office located in Renton, Washington. In 2015, Providence provided more than $951 million in community benefit. Providence Health & Services continues a tradition of caring that the Sisters of Providence began nearly 160 years ago. Through its cancer institute model, Providence is dedicated to national leadership in personalized medicine and innovative research, delivering the best treatments to patients close to home and, when necessary, connecting patients to world-class physicians and caregivers across our network.

About Stanford Cancer Institute (SCI)
SCI is a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center dedicated and resourced to catalyze the vast scientific, technological and human capabilities of Stanford University and Stanford Medicine to advance understanding of cancer and rapidly translate research discoveries into improved prevention strategies, diagnostics and therapies. For more information about SCI, visit their website http://med.stanford.edu/cancer.html.

About Syapse
Syapse drives healthcare transformation through precision medicine, enabling provider systems to improve clinical outcomes, streamline operations, and shift to new payment models. Syapse Precision Medicine Platform is a comprehensive software suite used by leading health systems to support the clinical implementation of precision medicine in oncology and other service lines. This category-defining platform enables clinical and genomic data integration, decision support, care coordination, and quality improvement at point of care. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Syapse is backed by Ascension Ventures, Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE), and Social Capital. For more information, visit syapse.com.

Daron Cowley
Intermountain Healthcare
801-442-2834
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