By Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick
Twitter: @drnic1
Host of Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist – #TheIncrementalist
On this episode I talked to Laura Fernandes, PhD, Senior Statistical Director at COTA (@cotahealthcare) who provide real-world data and analytics to help health systems expedite cancer research and standardize cancer patient care, and empowers life sciences companies to accelerate drug development and regulatory approvals for life-saving cancer drugs and treatments.
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Laura comes from an international background that influenced her research into statistical methods to improve cancer research. We talk about the work she is doing in developing real world data (RWD) and what that is and how it relates to clinical trials and the gold standard in medicine and science the Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT). Her work has allowed the application of RWD to cancer care and allowed for new uses and updated labelling by the FDA for drugs in oncology care. We discuss the evolution of clinical trials, and insights on how organizations are tackling disparities in cancer care and research and some of the broader health data challenges facing healthcare and medical researchers
We discuss how the Cota data was used to review the effectiveness of Hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID19 and how their data was used to demonstrate clearly that it has no place in for treating COVID19. We discuss labels in disease and in particular cancer and how that might change as our understanding grows
Listen in to hear how this RWD is being used to accelerate our understanding of drugs in pediatric patients where the ability to test drugs is much harder leading to delays in availability of treatments and options for children and infants.
About the Show
For years Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick, has served as a voice on the impact of new technologies on healthcare, earning a reputation as a leading authority on where the future of medicine is going. Combining powers of observation and real world experience, Dr. Nick has seen many predictions come true and makes the case that innovations in healthcare can be accomplished incrementally, not just by moonshot events. Tune in to hear Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist and his guests discuss what the future of healthcare looks like, how we will get there, and what it will take to improve healthcare for all.
This article was originally published on the Dr. Nick – The Incrementalist blog and is republished here with permission.