The day-long conference on precision medicine and data science saw a discussion with experts on how we can collaborate and accelerate precision medicine in Asia.
The development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning(ML)-based tools in recent years has allowed us to better understand data and translate it into something more meaningful for healthcare. Precision medicine is an approach that takes into account individual variations in environment, genetics, and lifestyle to diagnose and prescribe the right treatments to the right patients at the right time.
On 7 June 2022, BC Platforms (BCP), a leading provider of data and technology platforms for personalised medicine and drug development, hosted a day-long conference on precision medicine and data science to discuss how stakeholders can securely collaborate and enable the use of federated data at scale to empower precision medicine, population health, and preventive care initiatives in the region.
The conference featured preeminent local and international experts from academia, government, and healthcare, including Professor Patrick Tan, Executive Director of the Genome Institute of Singapore, Associate Professor Neerja Karnani, Bioinformatics Institute A*STAR, and Dr. Shay Ben-Shachar, Director of Precision Medicine and Genomics at Clalit Research Institute, Israel.
In this conference, Prof. Tan shared more about Precision Health Research, Singapore (PRECISE) and the need to collect data that is relevant to the Singapore population. Given that much of the available data today are dominated by Western countries, there is a need to have our own database so we can better deliver healthcare to the right groups of people. In a separate talk, Assoc. Prof. Karnani shared more about her work in the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) study and highlighted how precision medicine is critical to have better forecasting of disease.
“High quality clinical and genomics information is foundational to
predictive and preventive clinical care as well as drug development. ”
—Mr Tero Silvola, Chief Executive
Officer of BC Platforms
“Today, real-world data generated from Asian countries [are] not represented well enough and data diversity is key to solving the most pressing research questions,” said Mr Tero Silvola, Chief Executive Officer of BC Platforms. “At BC Platforms, we recognise that Asian countries continue to remain under-represented in global life science research, so it is important for healthcare systems in the region to collaborate, build highly secure, enabling technologies, and ensure local legislation is supportive of real-world data initiatives. It will allow the whole ecosystem to stay in front of the development, and our vision focuses on personalised care models for patients in this region.”
Recognising the potential of precision medicine and to support growth in this area within the Asia-Pacific, the company recently expanded its R&D operations in Singapore earlier this year and partnered with SingHealth, Singapore’s largest public healthcare group. The collaboration aims to build a series of research projects and by doing so, accelerate relevant clinical research with pressing targets on diseases prevalent in the Asian population, including but not limited to cancer and cardiovascular diseases. This highly visible partnership is part of BC Platforms’ rapidly growing data partner network for secure and regulatory-compliant sharing of real-world data. The BCRQUEST.com global partner network now comprises 33 million patient lives from 37 data partners in five continents.
While BC Platforms has been active in Singapore since 2019, it plans to ramp up activities and continue to build its presence in the region as it continues to develop and deploy safe and secure infrastructure for healthcare data. The company is also focusing on partnerships with local and regional healthcare and research institutions to strengthen translational research capabilities in the Asia-Pacific and improve care outcomes for patients in the region. [APBN]
Source: BC Platforms