OPeN, a Data-Sharing Initiative, Announced Ahead of the Cancer Moonshot Summit

A newly formed data-sharing initiative, Oncology Precision Network (OPeN)—the product of a collaboration between Intermountain Healthcare, Stanford Cancer Institute, Providence Health and Services, and Syapse—is promising a boost to precision medicine via data access to several health systems and cancer patients in the nation. This announcement was made by the White House press office earlier today, ahead of the Cancer Moonshot Summit organized at Howard University in Washington, DC. Two hundred and seventy events have been planned in parallel to the summit across the United States.

The OPeN network includes 79 hospitals and 800 clinics in 11 states, and is expected to impact 50,000 new cancer cases annually. Additionally, 5 new healthcare systems are projected to onboard over the next 12 months, with a focus on community healthcare systems outside of the existing 11 states. Physicians who are a part of the OPeN network will have access to decision support tools that will be based on data and knowledge sharing so providers across the nation can learn and implement better care practices.

Additionally, OPeN will improve clinical trial participation by providing patients access to new trials in their community. The network will match patients from at least 20 community sites to relevant clinical trials within 15 months.

“The Moonshot cannot be achieved by one person, one organization, one discipline, or even one collective approach,” said Vice President Biden, who heads the Cancer Moonshot effort. “Solving the complexities of cancer will require the formation of new alliances to defy the bounds of innovation and accelerate the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and—ultimately—a cure. It’s going to require millions of Americans speaking up and contributing what they’re able. That’s what the Cancer Moonshot Summit is all about.”

Several other collaborations and actions have been announced that align with the goals of Cancer Moonshot. These include:

1. Creation of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) drug formulary. A public-private partnership with 20 to 30 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to expedite cancer researchers’ access to investigational agents and approved drugs.
2. Improving patient access to clinical trials. The NCI, in collaboration with the White House Presidential Innovation Fellows, is planning a redesign of how patients and physicians learn about and find information on cancer clinical trials.
3. Computing partnership between the Department of Energy (DOE) and the NCI to accelerate precision oncology. Three new pilot projects, a partnership between the DOE and the NCI, will bring together cancer researchers, care providers, computer scientists, and engineers to use the most sophisticated computing technology in the nation that can analyze preclinical models in cancer, molecular interaction data for RAS, and cancer surveillance data across four DOE National Laboratories.
4. Patents 4 Patients: Fast-track review for cancer treatment—related patents. The US Patent and Trademark Office is launching a free and accelerated pilot program that will reduce the time to review patent applications in specific fields of cancer therapy by 50% (less than a year).

Other initiatives that have been announced can be accessed here.