Mayo Clinic Platform Standardizes Cancer Data to Speed Up Trials
What You Should Know
- The Upgrade: Mayo Clinic Platform_Orchestrate has launched new capabilities that allow researchers to access standardized, “research-ready” cancer data.
- The Standard: The platform now utilizes the OMOP Oncology framework, which structures complex, messy data (like pathology reports and tumor staging) into a consistent format that algorithms can easily analyze.
- The Future: Later this year, Mayo will introduce tokenization, a technology that connects de-identified patient data across different health systems, giving researchers a complete “longitudinal view” of a cancer patient’s journey before, during, and after their time at Mayo.
Structuring the Unstructured
The core innovation here is the integration of OMOP (Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership) Oncology. This global standard allows the platform to ingest unstructured data—like a doctor’s handwritten notes or a radiology report—and refine it into structured attributes.
- Inputs: Diagnoses, lab results, imaging, pathology reports.
- Outputs: Standardized tumor characteristics, biomarkers, staging, and progression data.
“The integration of OMOP Oncology into Mayo Clinic Platform has the power to accelerate discovery, improve clinical trial design, unlock real-world insights and support the development of next-generation therapies for patients worldwide,” said Elisabeth Heath, M.D., chair of the Department of Oncology at Mayo Clinic.
The “Longitudinal” View
Later this year, the platform will incorporate tokenization. Currently, a hospital often only sees a patient when they are inside its walls. Tokenization allows de-identified data to be connected across the entire healthcare ecosystem. This gives researchers a “longitudinal view”—tracking a patient’s journey before they arrived at Mayo and after they left. This is critical for understanding long-term survivorship and the real-world efficacy of treatments outside of a controlled trial setting.
Nemesis Health, a research and technology service provider for Mayo Clinic Platform, contributed to the development of OMOP Oncology capabilities on Orchestrate.
