iSOFT Group, the health information technology company based in Sydney, Australia, has extended its reach into the life sciences arena with new solutions to extract and de-identify data from electronic medical records for clinical research and other uses.
The move stems from a co-marketing agreement with US-based clinical research acceleration specialist CliniWorks for the latter’s AccelFind data-mining technology.
As iSOFT explained, the AccelFind solutions enable users to extract medical knowledge from any type of data, including free text notes, discharge summaries or structured data contained in electronic medical records and laboratory systems.
Under the agreement with CliniWorks, iSOFT will market AccelFind as part of its Life Science Solution “powered by CliniWorks” to hospitals and life science companies worldwide.
In addition, Germany’s Cytolon will integrate the new tool with CordMatch, its internet-based cord-blood brokering platform for use in the emerging fields of regenerative and personalised medicine.
CordMatch encompasses product search, patient matching with cord blood units, logistics, billing and follow-up for stem-cell therapy. iSOFT’s Life Sciences Solution will be integrated with CordMatch, creating a “powerful tool” for the secondary use of electronic health records, said the companies, which will share the benefits from any associated projects.
The combination of CordMatch and the iSOFT Life Sciences Solution offers “a whole new world of possibilities for clinical development, adding value for pharmaceutical companies and permitting ultimately the improvement of therapy quality and fostering personalised medicine”, they commented.
According to Dr Joerg Kraenzlein, iSOFT’s director for life sciences, the company’s move into life science applications represents “a tremendous opportunity to accelerate clinical research in a so far unprecedented way, and tap into new areas of treatment options and value propositions that have the potential to change the way we perform medicine and use healthcare IT today”.
