Moffitt Cancer Center joins Deloitte's ConvergeHealth real-world analytics consortium

The ConvergeHealth consortium, started by Deloitte earlier this year to bring massive amounts of patient data together for advanced analytics on outcomes, therapy designs and clinical trials research, is being joined by M2Gen, a for-profit subisidiary of the Moffitt Cancer Center (Tampa). Moffitt, one of 41 “Comprehensive Cancer Centers” as designated by the National Cancer Institute, pioneered a treatment system called Total Cancer Care. Under it, cancer sufferers (upon their willingness to enroll) become both patients and research subjects that could enter clinical trials for new therapies. Specimens and treatment histories of over 100,000 patients have already been collected. The research can continue long after initial treatment, thus providing longitudinal data on patient outcomes, according to Dr. Bill Dalton, CEO of M2Gen. Some pharma companies are already clients of M2Gen, and M2Gen announced another partnership, with Covance, a clinical research organization, last year to develop personalized medicine techniques.

For its part, ConvergeHealth will apply its OutcomesMiner analytics engine to assist M2Gen in gaining insights from the longitudinal data. ConvergeHealth is assembling a team of programmers, researchers and analytics experts to provide this service, as well as related ones on population health and the financial performance of health systems—a key factor in the success of the accountable care organizations (ACOs) being set up around the country. ConvergeHealth was announced with the participation of Intermountain Healthcare, a Utah-based health system; in addition to Mofffit’s M2Gen, it has been joined by the Northern New England Accountable Care Collaborative, a group of New England health systems across Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.