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Recapping Lynx.MD CEO Omer Dror ViVE 2024 Tech Talk

Omer Dror, co-founder and CEO of Lynx.MD, presented “Data & AI: How to Overcome Data Gaps To Deliver on the Promise of AI in Healthcare.” at ViVE 2024. Dror argued that while the promise of AI in healthcare is significant, there are substantial challenges with data fragmentation, availability, and a lack of collaboration that hinder progress.

Key Takeaways

• Data fragmentation and scarcity hinder the development of accurate AI models in healthcare.
• Collaboration and data sharing across healthcare providers are crucial for overcoming this hurdle.
• Secure data-sharing platforms like Lynx.MD‘s Trusted Data Environment can facilitate collaboration while ensuring privacy.
• Widespread participation in data sharing is essential to achieve AI’s potential in healthcare and ensure health equity.

Data: The Fuel for AI Innovation

Dror highlighted the vast amount of data collected in healthcare, emphasizing that 30% of the world’s data originates from this sector. However, a significant portion of this data is unstructured and not leveraged due to fragmentation across various healthcare providers and healthcare platforms. This fragmentation makes it difficult to aggregate data for analysis and make available for AI model development.

The Challenge of Data Fragmentation

Dror explained that the fragmented nature of the US healthcare system creates challenges in collecting data across a patient’s journey. Each healthcare provider collects data specific to their touchpoint, resulting in a scattered data landscape. This fragmentation makes it challenging to create accurate predictions for various patient populations because a single healthcare system often lacks sufficient data to inform for specific conditions.

Collaboration is Key

Dror emphasized the importance of data sharing and collaboration between healthcare providers, organizations and industry. He cited research from OpenAI demonstrating the exponential increase in data size required for marginal improvements in AI model accuracy. To achieve the necessary level of accuracy for AI in healthcare, collaboration and the secure sharing of structured and unstructured data is essential.

The Role of Lynx.MD

Lynx.MD offers a Trusted Data Environment that facilitates data sharing while maintaining control and privacy. The Lynx.MD solution enables data ingestion, modeling, and de-identification to ensure secure collaboration within the healthcare ecosystem. This approach allows researchers and AI developers to access data for analysis without compromising patient privacy.

Call to Action: Collaborate with Data

Dror concluded his talk by urging the audience to participate in data collaborations. He emphasized that sharing data securely while preserving patient privacy is crucial to unlocking the true potential of AI in healthcare. Without real-world data AI is doomed to provide inadequate results. He acknowledged the challenges of data cleaning and bias inherent in data collection but stressed that collaboration is necessary to address these issues and achieve health equity through widespread AI deployment.

As a  gastroenterologist, I’ve witnessed firsthand the profound impact that effective communication can have on patient care. In our field, where every symptom and detail holds significance, the art of asking the right questions is paramount. Traditional binary inquiries, ie. do you feel better today, fall short in capturing the complexity of gastrointestinal issues and their broader implications for patient health and potential to inform research.

Consider a patient presenting with symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. Asking a binary question such as “Do you have abdominal pain?” merely scratches the surface of their experience. By delving deeper and probing for details about the nature, severity, and triggers of their symptoms, I can glean invaluable insights that inform diagnostic evaluations and guide personalized treatment plans.

Moreover, the broader context of a patient’s health is equally essential in managing gastrointestinal conditions effectively. Binary inquiries about diet and lifestyle habits overlook the intricate interplay of factors influencing digestive function. engaging in open-ended conversations and exploring the patient’s dietary preferences, stress levels, and medical history, I can uncover underlying triggers and develop targeted interventions that address the root cause of their symptoms.

Importantly, these non-binary conversational insights are not only critical for individual patient care but also hold significant implications for advancing research in gastroenterology. By capturing the rich nuances of patient experiences, we can identify patterns, trends, and novel therapeutic targets that drive innovation and improve outcomes for all individuals affected by gastrointestinal conditions.

In this era of technological advancement, artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) have emerged as powerful tools in harnessing the wealth of data generated through patient-provider interactions. Natural language processing algorithms enable researchers to analyze unstructured conversational data, uncovering hidden insights that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. By leveraging AI and LLMs, researchers can accelerate the pace of discovery, facilitate knowledge dissemination, and ultimately, transform the landscape of gastroenterological care.

As an industry we have to recognize the imperative of moving beyond binary questioning and embracing a more nuanced approach to patient-centered communication. Harnessing the insights gleaned from these conversations and leveraging cutting-edge technology, we can  enhance individual patient care and  drive meaningful advancements in gastroenterological research.  Navigating the gray areas between black-and-white answers, we can lay the groundwork for a future where every patient is provided with personalized, evidence-based care tailored to their distinct needs and experiences.

Study real-world outcomes of IBD infliximab patients with the Anser TDM Test: Presentation by Prometheus using the Lynx GI data library

Lynx.MD, a provider of a comprehensive medical data intelligence platform, is honored to support our partner, Andrew Shim, Medical Affairs, Prometheus Laboratories Inc, poster presentation at the upcoming Crohn’s & Colitis Congress 2024 demonstrating the potential of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) to positively impact patient outcomes with infliximab dose optimization.

Poster Session:  Comparing Real-World Outcomes… Using TDM vs. Unoptimized Control Group 

Presenter:  Dr. Andrew Shim, Prometheus Laboratories Inc., University of Minnesota

When:  Friday, January 26th, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Pacific

Venue:  Bellagio, Las Vegas

Key points of interest:

• Large-scale study conducted in real-world community-based practices.
• TDM-guided infliximab optimization linked to reduced rates of IBD-related surgery compared to standard dosing.
• Findings add to growing evidence supporting personalized, TDM-driven treatment for improved outcomes and reduced healthcare costs.

This study was made possible through a powerful collaboration between Prometheus Laboratories Inc. and Lynx.MD, a leading real-world medical data platform. Leveraging Lynx.MD‘s rich repository of de-identified clinical data within the Lynx.MD Trusted Data Environment, Prometheus researchers gained unparalleled access to real-world treatment patterns and outcomes in a diverse patient population. This unique partnership exemplifies the power of data-driven research in advancing personalized medicine and ultimately improving patient lives.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about this potentially transformative approach to IBD care at the Crohn’s & Colitis Congress. Attend Dr. Shim’s presentation to discover how data-driven insights can inform IBD treatments.

Additional Information:

• Crohn’s & Colitis Congress 2024 website: https://www.crohnscolitisfoundation.org/events/crohns-colitis-congress-2024
• Prometheus Laboratories Inc. website: https://prometheuslabs.com/

#CCCongress24

The digital native generation, millennials and beyond, is the first generation to grow up with the internet and digital technology in the palm of their hand. They are comfortable using technology to communicate, learn, and access information. This comfort with technology extends to the healthcare sphere.

A 2023 study published in the journal Nature Medicinefound that digital natives are more likely than older generations to be comfortable sharing their clinical data for research and development. The study found that 62% of digital natives were willing to share their data, compared to only 38% of non-digital natives.

There are a few reasons why digital natives are more comfortable sharing their clinical data. First, they are more likely to trust technology companies and healthcare organizations. Second, they are more likely to understand the benefits of sharing their data for research and development. Third, they are more likely to believe that their data will be used responsibly.

The Benefits of Sharing Clinical Data

Sharing clinical data for research and development can have several benefits. For example, it can help researchers develop new treatments and cures for diseases. It can also help researchers to better understand how diseases work and how to prevent them.

In addition, sharing clinical data can help to improve the quality of healthcare. For example, researchers can use clinical data to develop new diagnostic tools and to identify patients who are at risk of developing certain diseases.

How Digital Natives Are Sharing Their Clinical Data

Digital natives are embracing their role as active participants in the healthcare data revolution, eagerly sharing their clinical information through various digital channels. A prime example is their adoption of health apps, websites and wearables that enable them to monitor and track their health data, actively sharing it with researchers to advance medical understanding. Additionally, they elect to engage in clinical trials that leverage digital technology to collect and share data, contributing to the development of innovative treatments and therapies.

Digital natives are also more receptive to the passive sharing of their data, particularly when they are assured that it will be de-identified and randomized before being utilized for research purposes. This includes the aggregation of their data for research into various healthcare domains, encompassing holistic health and traditional health disciplines. By actively and passively sharing their clinical data, digital natives are playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of healthcare research and innovation.

Ensure that Clinical Data is Shared Responsibly

It is important to ensure that clinical data is shared responsibly. This means that healthcare organizations and technology companies should have clear policies in place to protect the privacy and security of the data. And, PHI should never be shared without the express written consent of the patient.

In addition, it is important to give patients control over their data. Patients should be able to choose whether or not to share their data and who they share it with. Most healthcare organizations that participate in academic and third-party research already have patients acknowledge and agree to this kind of passive research participation. To ensure the individual maintains control, healthcare organizations should provide a very easy-to-understand Opt-In / Opt-Out option when people are making appointments or otherwise engaging in care.

The Future of Clinical Data Sharing

As the digital native generation becomes the primary users of healthcare service, as that population exceeds boomers and earlier generations, we can expect to see more and more people sharing their clinical data for research and development. This will lead to a number of benefits, including the development of new treatments and cures for diseases, improved quality of healthcare, and a better understanding of how diseases work and how to prevent them.

HealthTech’s Responsibility

Digital natives are comfortable sharing their clinical data for research and development as long as it is for the greater good. There are a number of benefits to sharing clinical data, including the development of new treatments and cures for diseases, improved quality of healthcare, and a better understanding of how diseases work and how to prevent them.

It is important to ensure that clinical data is shared responsibly. This means that healthcare organizations and technology companies should have clear policies in place to protect the privacy and security of the data. In addition, it is important to give patients control over their data.

As digital natives come of age and become the primary users of healthcare services, we can expect to see more and more people sharing their clinical data for research and development. This will lead to benefits for everyone.

Here are some additional thoughts on how to make clinical data sharing more comfortable for digital natives:

• Transparency: Digital natives want to know how their data will be used and who will have access to it. Healthcare organizations and technology companies should be transparent about their data-sharing practices.
• Control: Digital natives want to have control over their data. They should be able to choose whether or not to share their data, even if it is in the form of a generic Opt-in / Opt-Out consent acknowledgment with their provider organization.
• Benefit: Digital natives want to know that their data is being used for a good cause. Healthcare organizations and technology companies should explain how sharing data will benefit patients and the public.

By following these guidelines, healthcare organizations and technology companies can make clinical data sharing more comfortable for digital natives and reap the benefits of this data for research and development.

Healthcare Providers, MedTech, and Life Science companies can learn more about how Lynx.MD is helping organizations securely optimize the knowledge to be found in real-world clinical data. 

Omer Dror, CEO and co-founder of Lynx.MD was recently interviewed by Conor Tuohy for the Millennium Alliance Live podcast. The conversation explores the history of Lynx.MD, the company vision, and the importance of data collaboration in healthcare and research. In a world rich with healthcare data, the potential to transform patient care and save lives is within our reach. However, accessing and harnessing the insights buried in notes and siloed data repositories is a monumental challenge. Lynx.MD, an AI-powered medical data intelligence platform, is on a mission to unlock the untapped potential of real-world data by providing a secure and self-service analytics platform. 

1. Can you tell us about your company’s mission? Lynx.MD’s mission is to bridge the gap between real-world patient data and transformative research, enabling diagnostic and therapeutic solutions that improve patient outcomes. The healthcare industry has amassed an immense amount of data that, if accessible, could revolutionize care and save lives. Real-world data holds tremendous potential—from detecting diagnostic risk factors in medical images to repurposing drugs, designing clinical trials, and conducting population-level analyses. However, to fully leverage this potential, effective collaboration within the healthcare ecosystem is crucial. Lynx.MD aims to provide a secure and safe platform that facilitates the sharing of sensitive data without compromising patient confidentiality or breaching data security regulations.
2. How does Lynx work with healthcare providers, researchers, and other stakeholders to promote data collaboration? Lynx.MD brings together healthcare providers, researchers, academics, and MedTech organizations to foster collaboration with real-world clinical data. One of the biggest barriers to collaboration is inertia—aggregating data from disparate sources and managing access requests is not a top priority for most healthcare organizations. Meanwhile, researchers and academics require real-world data to test hypotheses, understand treatment effectiveness, patient outcomes, and advance personalized medicine. To address these challenges, Lynx.MD has developed a secure data exchange platform that connects healthcare providers, industry researchers, academics, and MedTech organizations. The platform enables the safe and secure sharing of de-identified clinical data, empowering transformative analytics and accelerating research and development.
3. Why is data sharing so important in healthcare, research, and development, and what problem are you solving? Data sharing and collaboration are crucial for improving patient care. It accelerates scientific discoveries, enhances reproducibility, promotes innovation, shortens time to market, improves patient outcomes, optimizes resource allocation, and addresses public health challenges. The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines exemplifies the power of data sharing enabled by platforms like the UK’s NHS Data sharing platform or Israel’s centralized healthcare data repository. These countries contributed de-identified data from millions of individuals, enabling pharmaceutical companies to test hypotheses and track efficacy in real time. Lynx.MD aims to provide healthcare providers with a similar platform to safely and securely share data, enabling research and development that can improve care and outcomes. 
4. What sets the Lynx.MD platform apart from other solutions in the industry? The Lynx.MD platform stands out by bringing both sides of the data ecosystem together for collaboration. Healthcare organizations trust Lynx.MD to connect and collate their data from various sources into a secure Trusted Data Environment. This environment allows them to use the data for internal analysis and research or selectively share it with third parties for further advancements. Importantly, the data never leaves the provider’s secure environment, ensuring control and compliance. Additionally, MedTech, biopharma, and life science companies can significantly reduce the time to access real-world clinical data by partnering with Lynx.MD, leveraging the data aggregated from healthcare partners. Previously, these organizations would have had to navigate individual contracts with each provider, a process that could.

Thank you to the Millennium Alliance for hosting Lynx.MD. We appreciate the opportunity to engage in discussions about the challenges and opportunities presented by the vast amount of healthcare data, which unfortunately remains inaccessible and confined within siloed data structures. Approximately 97% of this valuable data is currently locked away, hindering its utilization. Organizations like the Millennium Alliance play a vital role in advancing new technologies and initiatives, bringing them to the forefront of the healthcare industry.

Watch the full podcast.

In April, Omer Dror, Lynx.MD CEO and Co-Founder participated in a panel at the Physician Practice Management and ASC Symposium 2023. The topic of discussion, Leveraging Data Collaborations for Revenue Growth. Beyond revenue recovery, there was a spirited discussion about the value of a comprehensive data intelligence and collaboration platform.

By leveraging data intelligence platforms, PE-backed healthcare organizations gain valuable insights into operational variations, standardize processes, share best practices, and identify opportunities for improvement and growth across their practices.

1. Standardized metrics and processes: Data intelligence platforms enable healthcare organizations to establish and compare standardized metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) across practices, facilitating the identification of operational variations and inefficiencies. This allows organizations to pinpoint areas for standardization or optimization, leading to improved efficiency and quality of care.
2. Sharing best practices: These platforms facilitate the sharing of successful operational strategies and encourage knowledge exchange among practices within the organization.
3. Data-driven quality improvement: Data intelligence platforms support benchmarking for quality improvement initiatives, providing actionable data and insights for identifying areas of improvement and implementing evidence-based practices.
4. Data consolidation: These platforms integrate structured and unstructured data from various sources into a centralized repository, allowing PE-backed organizations to create a complete picture of the organization’s operations and a holistic view of the patient journey and care paths.
5. Identifying cost-saving and growth opportunities: Data intelligence platforms help identify cost-saving opportunities and growth potential through analysis of operational metrics and patient demographics.
6. Executive reporting and oversight: These platforms provide executive-level reporting and dashboards for monitoring key metrics and making informed decisions regarding resource allocation and operational improvements.
7. Performance tracking: Data intelligence platforms enable real-time monitoring of KPIs, facilitating the assessment of strategy effectiveness and data-driven adjustments.
8. Revenue optimization: These platforms analyze patient data to identify revenue growth opportunities and optimize pricing and reimbursement strategies.
9. Market analysis: Data intelligence platforms provide insights into market trends, patient preferences, and competitive landscapes, aiding in identifying growth opportunities, evaluating market positioning, and developing effective marketing strategies.
10. Improved decision-making: Data intelligence platforms provide actionable insights and analytics for informed decision-making in operations, patient care, and strategic initiatives.
11. Patient outcomes analysis: Data intelligence platforms analyze patient data to improve overall patient care and identify best practices in clinical outcomes, treatment efficacy, and patient satisfaction.
12. Population health management: Data intelligence platforms analyze population health data to identify high-risk patient groups and develop targeted interventions and preventive care strategies for improved health outcomes and cost savings.
13. Compliance and reporting: These platforms automate data aggregation, validation, and reporting processes, ensuring accurate and timely submission of regulatory reports and compliance with industry standards.
14. Enhanced insights: Sharing data with third parties for research collaboration elevates the organization’s industry profile while providing practices with expanded knowledge and insights, leading to improved patient care.
15. Accelerated research: Collaboration with external researchers accelerates research and development efforts, enabling faster advancements in treatments and interventions.

Learn more about our work with PE-backed practice groups and our recently announced partnership with Gastro Health and Prometheus Laboratories, aiming to securely unite real-world clinical data for retrospective analysis of inflammatory bowel disease treatments, bringing together 10 years of de-identified IBD clinical laboratory data and patient data using the Lynx Trusted Data Environment.