INDIANAPOLIS and COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many medical institutions around the country have suspended or ended clinical trials. But Franciscan Health Cancer Center, in collaboration with Deep Lens, is moving forward with an initiative to rapidly and effectively match patients to precision therapies and clinical studies with an artificial intelligence-based screening and enrollment platform, VIPER™.
With the upcoming integration of VIPER to the Franciscan Health system, clinical trial care teams will be able to immediately and automatically match patients based on the genetic profile of their cancers to the best precision therapies and oncology clinical trials.
“By partnering with Deep Lens we can better provide our patients with personalized, targeted treatments by genetically matching their cancers to cutting-edge treatments in clinical trials,” said Taylor M. Ortiz, MD, Medical Director of Clinical Research at the Franciscan Health Cancer Center Indianapolis. “The VIPER platform can help accelerate the matching of patients to fit in the narrow window of opportunity so they may access personalized clinical trials.”
Clinical trial recruitment remains challenging with low participation and enrollment due to limited time and resources for physicians and care teams. More than 15,000 oncology clinical trials are actively recruiting patients; yet estimates put the rate of participation as low as three percent of potential trial candidates.
“Identifying cancer patients who could benefit from a clinical trial is a time-consuming manual process today with hundreds of documents leading to inconsistencies in the screening, thereby leading to missed opportunities,” said Kathy Kioussopoulos, research director of the Franciscan Alliance Research Administration. “After an extensive due diligence process of searching for the best fit, we selected Deep Lens to help us solve this problem and streamline our identification and screening process to help our patients access the best clinical trials for them.”
“The partnership with Franciscan Health is a natural fit because we both want to accelerate and optimize treatment for cancer patients in the community and be an advocate for those in need,” said Dave Billiter, co-founder and CEO at Deep Lens. “VIPER is a catalyst to improve the way care is delivered and it helps cancer care teams and trial coordinators automate and expedite the patient screening process to match the right patient with the right trial at the right time.”
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About Franciscan Health Cancer Center
The Franciscan Health Cancer Center in Indianapolis and Mooresville is two of nine cancer centers across Franciscan Alliance, one of the largest Catholic health care systems in the Midwest. The center offers multidisciplinary clinics for cancers in breast, lung, colorectal, gynecological, melanoma, prostate, gastrointestinal and is home to the Indiana Blood & Marrow Transplant program, the first in Indiana to offer blood and marrow transplants for treatment of leukemia and lymphoma. Our comprehensive cancer program is a leader in offering the latest research and clinical trials, advanced treatment options, genetic counseling, multidisciplinary specialists and nurse navigation. We provide an unmatched range of spiritual, emotional and physical support services to help patients throughout their journey by way of unique programs such as the High-Risk Breast Clinic, Cardio-Oncology Program, Hereditary Cancer Clinic, Supportive Care Clinic and The Moving Beyond Survivorship Program in partnership with Cancer Support Community. For more information, visit http://franciscanhealth.org/cancer.
About Deep Lens
Deep Lens is a software company focused on a groundbreaking approach to faster recruitment of the best-suited cancer patients to clinical trials. By identifying patients at the time of diagnosis and combining lab, EMR, and genomic data, VIPER, Deep Lens’ integrated cloud platform, provides care teams with visibility and workflows to accelerate recruitment and compress study timelines to bring game-changing therapies to market sooner. Growing with sponsors, providers, and strategic partners, Deep Lens challenges the status quo so that patients can get the therapies they want and deserve. For more information, visit www.deeplens.ai
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