Verily, OneOncology Create Clinical Trial Partnership to Feature Use of SignalPath Across Practices

Practices in the OneOncology Research Network (OneR) will have access to SignalPath, a first-of-its-kind clinical trial management software platform, as part of a broader strategic partnership between the community oncology network and Verily, officials of the groups announced August 16, 2023.¹

Daniel

Hirsch

Use of SignalPath will improve efficiency, ease compliance, boost enrollment, and ensure financial success in clinical trials, leaders of the partnership told Evidence-Based Oncology in interviews. Both Davey Daniel, MD, chief medical officer for OneOncology, which serves 18 practices, and Brad Hirsch, MD, MBA, head of product and implementation at Verily and cofounder of SignalPath, said that use of SignalPath will allow OneOncology practices to enroll more patients from underrepresented groups, which is a priority for the partners, for pharmaceutical sponsors, and for the FDA.

According to a statement,1 the partnership seeks to bring new research opportunities to community oncology practices, where pharmaceutical companies are looking to enroll patients who reflect the broader population of those who have cancer. The partners’ statement cited data showing there are more than 1300 drugs to treat cancer under development, but only 6% of the US adult population with cancer takes part in a trial.^2,3

Hirsch founded SignalPath in 2014, and Verily acquired the company in 2021.⁴ In developing the platform, Hirsch drew on his experiences as a community oncologist—which included having a research nurse leave because running a trial had become too complex. Offering research at the community level helps attract talent and improves patients’ lives, he said, but the staff need the right support tools. The first step, he said, is translating clinical trial protocols into digital formats, so requirements can be integrated into daily workflows.

“We find that many of the oncologists in the community want to take part in research; they find it interesting and good reason to show up every day,” Hirsch said. But doctors need assurances and help to make clinical trials efficient and a net win financially. “Those are the kinds of things we’re trying to address.”

Daniel agrees. “OneOncology remains a young company,” he said. “As we grew, we knew that we needed to be able to scale…. Every time you add a practice, you can’t grow by adding additional staff members; you need to be able to scale through technology.”

Managing the finances of clinical trials is crucial, Daniel said. “Most of us come to research as a passion. It’s a way to get our patients better care. But unless we learn how to run it efficiently as a business, then you really can’t grow and sustain it,” he said.

Finding technology that can help sites offer more trials and enroll more patients addresses some of those problems, Daniel said.

Access at the Smallest Sites
OneR, which currently includes 11 OneOncology practices,⁵ seeks to make clinical trials available to patients who would otherwise have to travel to academic centers, and having SignalPath will allow centralized management of many tasks for the smallest sites.

“To offer trials in small communities, underserved communities, it is really important to provide a solid menu across a number of disease types. For a small practice to be able to do that, you have to be able to provide some of those services centrally,” Daniel said. “Then, even the small rural practices can maintain that broad menu [that] lets patients have access, whether they can travel or not.

“To me that’s the biggest disparity we see in health equity—the patients who are in small, underserved communities who can’t afford to travel really deserve access to the same clinical trials that everyone else does,” he said.

Improving Diversity in Trial Enrollment
Enrolling diverse patient populations in trials is a priority for today’s pharmaceutical companies, Hirsch said. “They often ask us for help identifying sites and in bringing sites on board,” he said.

As SignalPath has grown its own footprint with integrated delivery networks, Hirsch said, working with larger oncology networks such as OneOncology is the next logical step. OneOncology has a very diverse patient population across the practices that are involved in research, which not only improves representation in the trials at hand, but also helps Verily build patient registries that will allow for future partnerships.

“That’s part of our bigger vision—to not only make those connections between the practices that are part of our system and the pharmaceutical companies we partner with, but also, how can we actually bring differentiated trials [to] registries as a part of those relationships?”

This work, he said, would be of particular interest to payers. By working with more oncologists, Verily will be able to develop evidence on optimizing care delivery. He cited the need to reduce the effects of cytokine release syndrome (CRS), which can occur with many of the newer agents, especially when treating hematological cancers.

“CRS is a great example of that. How do we get [patients] out of hospitals? How do we make sure that there is broad access to these agents, but also that they’re cared for in a way that is efficient and optimized?”

Ultimately, Hirsch and Daniel agreed, the partnership and use of the platform has the potential to reduce the time it takes to set up a trial, and potentially the cost. Daniel emphasized that the platform will likely improve accuracy.

“Our goal is to make it easier to identify sites,” Hirsch said. “The sites that are participating are more likely to enroll and accrue [patients] and do what they need to do to be able to start up more quickly, but also to optimize the execution of that trial.” 

References
1. Verily and OneOncology announce collaboration to advance cancer research. News release. Verily. August 16, 2023. Accessed August 16, 2023. https://verily.com/perspectives/oneoncology-cancer-research-partnership
2. America’s Biopharmaceutical Companies. Medicines in development for cancer: 2020 report. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Published December 14, 2020. Accessed August 16, 2023. https://phrma.org/resource-center/Topics/Medicines-in-Development/Medicines-in-Development-for-Cancer-2020-Report
3. Unger JM, Fleury M. Nationally representative estimates of the participation of cancer patients in clinical research studies according to the commission on cancer. J Clin Oncol. 39;(suppl 28):74. doi:10.1200/JCO.2020.39.28_suppl.74
4. Highlander Partners portfolio company, SignalPath acquired by Verily. News release. PR Newswire. August 31, 2021. Accessed August 16, 2023. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/highlander-partners-portfolio-company-signal-path-acquired-by-verily-301366716.html
5. OneR, changing the future of research. OneOncology. Accessed August 16, 2023. https://www.oneoncology.com/one-r/