IBM Clinical Genomics (Cli-G)

On March 14, 2012 the IBM corporation announced development of the unique biomedical analytical platform which is intended to render to doctors the information and consulting help in search of the most effective methods of treatment of patients. The new platform can promote formation of more reasonable and personalized health care system and to help with fight against such dangerous diseases as cancer, a hypertension and AIDS.

Scientists of IBM Research cooperate in creation of the new platform of decision support with National oncological Institute in Milan (Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori), the leading research and health profile center in Italy. Now the new analytical IBM platform is tested by doctors of Institute, and further is going to apply it to personalisation of treatment on the basis of the automated interpretation of data on pathologies and information analysis, obtained from the last clinical cases recorded in a medical information system of hospital.

The biomedical analytical IBM Clinical Genomics platform for the personalized medicine

The choice of the most effective methods of treatment can depend on a number of characteristics, including age, weight, the family anamnesis, the nature of a course of a disease and shared state of health. Therefore adoption of more informed and personalized medical solutions is necessary for ensuring exact and safe treatment.

The newest analytical solution of IBM for health care – Clinical Genomics (Cli-G) – can integrate and analyze all available clinical made and recommendations and to compare them with the available medical data of the patient, creating a feature set, manifestations and symptoms which corresponds to the certain course of treatment optimal for a current status of the specific patient. The new prototype developed in the research center IBM Research – Haifa, studies specific features of the patient and a profile of a disease, and integrates these data with analysis results of similar previous cases and clinical recommendations. This solution is capable to provide to doctors and administrative workers the broad picture of medical care of the patient and to cut down expenses, helping doctors to select more effective methods of treatment.

"Decision making in difficult modern conditions requires the computerized methods allowing to analyze huge arrays of information on patients — doctor Marko A. Pyerotti considers (Marco A. Pierotti), the scientific director of National oncological Institute in Milan. — Providing to our doctors the vital information on what means were the most efficient for patients with similar clinical characteristics, we can help to increase efficiency of treatment of patients".

The Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan institute founded in 1925 is recognized as one of the lead research and medical institutions in the field of preclinical and clinical oncology. The special status of Institute as scientific center allows it to transmit results of the researches directly to clinical departments. The institute initiated cooperation with IBM for improvement of medical care by effective use of the innovation IT solutions. For diagnosis doctors obtain the personalized information on the patients based on the clinical record, the automated interpretation of pathologies, the clinical recommendations and analysis results of the similar previous clinical cases brought in an information system of hospital.

Along with support of adoption of clinical decisions on a course of treatment, the new platform can provide administrative personnel of National oncological Institute with complex idea of medical care of patients that will allow managers to estimate efficiency and if necessary to optimize processes for achievement of the best result. For example, the administration of hospital can carry out profound studying of data better to understand what recommendations were made on analysis results of the available information what of them were the most successful and whether the quality of treatment was improved.

"Our solution for clinical genomics is able to allow suppliers of medical services to personalize treatment and to increase its chances of success — Haim Nelken, the senior manager on integration of technologies into IBM Research – Haifa explained. — The solution is designed to provide to doctors recommendations which are beyond results of clinical trials. Such approach allows to study more deeply the available data and more precisely to prove treatment which was appointed on the basis of subjective memory, an intuition or results of clinical trials earlier".

Any data of the patient which are safely collected from hospitals and other medical institutions are "depersonalized" (anonymous) or become like those by removal of the personal identification information. The system of IBM does not need to know about whom information specifically arrived to draw conclusions. System operation is based on identification of similar cases depending on age, sex, symptoms, diagnostics or other connected factors.