NEW ORLEANS & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Ochsner Health System, Louisiana’s largest non-profit academic
healthcare system, and Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) have entered into a
multi-year strategic alliance to develop innovative models for clinical
trials. Through this partnership, Pfizer and Ochsner — through its
innovation lab, innovationOchsner (iO), in partnership with Ochsner
Research — will explore ways to enhance the clinical trial experience
and ease participation in clinical research for both patients and
healthcare professionals.
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The alliance aims to create faster, improved access and connectivity to
clinical trials for patients, with the ultimate goal of better
experiences and outcomes. Participating patients will have the
opportunity to test out new digital tools designed to make the clinical
trial experience more inclusive and enjoyable. Participating clinicians
will benefit from reduced manual data entry as a result of direct data
system integration and automated study conduct tools, freeing up time
and work to allow them to offer clinical research as an option to a
broader range of patients. And research groups will experience
efficiencies from interoperability that may lower costs while increasing
capacity. These projects are designed to ensure that all data collected
is secure and will only be used with patient consent, as in any clinical
trial.
“As a national leader in healthcare, Ochsner is delivering on its
mission to bring the most innovative ideas to our patients. We are
relentless about using the latest breakthroughs in science and
technology to solve some of the toughest healthcare challenges,” said
Dr. Richard Milani, Ochsner’s Chief Clinical Transformation Officer and
Medical Director of iO. “Partnering with Pfizer allows us to transform
medicine by creating a digital clinical trial experience that improves
patient participation, integration, communication and accessibility.”
The strategic alliance’s first project began with a “proof of value”
phase in which researchers successfully transferred mock data (e.g. no
actual patient data was used or shared) from Ochsner’s EHR system to
Pfizer’s electronic data capture system used in Pfizer clinical trials.
The experiment aimed at understanding the gaps and variances between
data collected in electronic health records and patient-reported data
from clinical trials.
Since the inception of electronic health records (EHRs), integrating EHR
data into clinical trial databases has been a goal of research
institutions, industry and regulators. Such integration would reduce the
burden of manual data entry, save time, decrease cost and accelerate
clinical trials. The ongoing challenge has been exchanging data between
healthcare systems and clinical trial systems, because each uses
different technology platforms and data standards. In recent years, Fast
Healthcare Interoperability Resources, or FHIR®,
a standard developed by the nonprofit organization Health Level Seven
International (HL7), has been introduced as a secure and open solution
for healthcare data exchange to accelerate information sharing. Most
health apps use FHIR data standards, but FHIR has yet to be adopted for
data exchange in industry-sponsored clinical trials. As one of the first
health systems to implement FHIR, Ochsner has continuously explored
opportunities to use the standards in other applications, including
clinical trials. The Ochsner-Pfizer alliance project aims to build a
model for applying FHIR standards so that high-quality clinical trial
data may be collected consistently, reliably and securely within
hospital and clinic electronic systems.
“We’re pleased that we succeeded in transferring core data types
collected in healthcare provider electronic health records to Pfizer’s
clinical trial data capture system using FHIR standards. To the best of
our knowledge, this is a first for our industry,” explains Rob Goodwin,
Vice President, Operations Center of Excellence, Global Product
Development at Pfizer. “There is more work ahead, but this is
a significant step forward in simplifying data capture for clinical
trials, and the first of many pioneering solutions we hope to develop
through our partnership with Ochsner.”
During the next phase, Pfizer and Ochsner will continue to develop new
ways to digitize the patient and clinician experience in clinical
trials, with attention to patient preferences on access to and use of
their health data and with an overarching goal of enhancing the quality
and value of clinical research interactions for all participants.
About Ochsner Health System
Ochsner Health System is Louisiana’s largest non-profit, academic,
healthcare system. Driven by a mission to Serve, Heal, Lead, Educate and
Innovate, coordinated clinical and hospital patient care is provided
across the region by Ochsner's 40 owned, managed and affiliated
hospitals and specialty hospitals, and more than 100 health centers and
urgent care centers. Ochsner is the only Louisiana hospital recognized
by U.S. News & World Report as a “Best Hospital” across three specialty
categories caring for patients from all 50 states and more than 70
countries worldwide each year. Ochsner employs nearly 25,000 employees
and over 4,500 employed and affiliated physicians in over 90 medical
specialties and subspecialties, and conducts more than 700 clinical
research studies. Ochsner Health System is proud to be a tobacco-free
environment. For more information, please visit ochsner.org and follow
us on Twitter and Facebook.
About innovationOchsner
innovationOchsner (iO) is an innovation lab launched by Ochsner Health
System to solve healthcare’s most pressing problems and reimagine and
revolutionize the delivery and experience of healthcare. iO is
developing new ways to empower patients to take an active role in
monitoring, maintaining and enhancing their own health and for providers
to dramatically improve the quality of care by managing patient
conditions more effectively and efficiently. For more information,
please visit www.ochsner.org/iO.
About Pfizer Inc: Working together for a healthier world®
At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies
to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive
to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery,
development and manufacture of health care products. Our global
portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world’s
best-known consumer health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues
work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness,
prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases
of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world’s
premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with
health care providers, governments and local communities to support and
expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For
more than 150 years, we have worked to make a difference for all who
rely on us. We routinely post information that may be important to
investors on our website at www.pfizer.com.
In addition, to learn more, please visit us on www.pfizer.com
and follow us on Twitter at @Pfizer and @Pfizer_News, LinkedIn, YouTube
and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Pfizer.
FHIR® is the registered trademark of HL7 and is used with the
permission of HL7.
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Pfizer Media Contact:
Samantha Reardon
212-733-1461
Samantha.Reardon@pfizer.com
Ochsner Media Contact:
Giselle Hecker
504-842-9219
ghecker@ochsner.org
Source: Pfizer