Institute for Informatics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis Joins Forces With Israeli Startup MDClone to Enable Data-Driven Healthcare Discovery and Innovation

ST. LOUIS, February 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

GlobalSTL fosters connection to set up competitive advantage for university and St. Louis Region 

Israel-based MDClone has signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Institute for Informatics (I²) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, which will introduce a new approach to healthcare data access, privacy, analytics, and research. MDClone addresses one of the greatest challenges - and opportunities - in healthcare today: a vast and ever-expanding amount of data, but a limited ability to derive meaningful insights, which can lead to more effective patient care and streamlined hospital operations. MDClone's solution dramatically enhances the utility of data and offers the first solution on the market to eliminate the risk of releasing identifiable patient information when conducting healthcare analysis and research.

     (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636255/MDClone_Logo.jpg )

The agreement represents the first expansion for MDClone outside of Israel, where in less than two years, it has already captured more than 80 percent of the market.

"We explored partnerships with leading institutions across the U.S. and have been impressed with the visionary leadership and top talent in healthcare delivery and research at Washington University in St. Louis," Ziv Ofek, MDClone founder and CEO said. "This is a large deal for MDClone. But more than that, with this partnership, and the support of GlobalSTL and St. Louis' robust healthcare ecosystem, we are uniquely positioned to continue developing a new healthcare data paradigm and introducing it across the U.S. and world."

Following the GlobalSTL visit to Israel this month with leaders from I² and BJC Healthcare, MDClone's team will be in St. Louis to launch the partnership on January 29, 2018. MDClone will install its Healthcare Data Platform at I², connecting data from across the BJC Healthcare System. Once live, the platform will enable clinicians and researchers at Washington University to extract data and insights in real-time with either original or unidentifiable synthetic data for even the most complex healthcare questions.

"The synthetic data can be analyzed as if it were original data but is 100 percent unidentified, non-human subject data," Ofek said.

"Our partnership with MDClone allows the Institute for Informatics to pursue the co-development of innovative approaches to clinical data re-use and sharing," Dr. Philip R.O. Payne, director of the Institute for Informatics, said. "We will be able to make more of our data accessible to more researchers and collaborators than ever before, while simultaneously protecting patient privacy and confidentiality at a level that is unprecedented as compared to traditional approaches to data de-identification. This is about democratizing our data and making it a strategic asset, such that every patient encounter becomes an opportunity to learn and improve patients' care, their families' care, and the care that their community receives, all through the power of what we call a 'rapid learning healthcare system.'"

GlobalSTL, an initiative of BioSTL, hosted Ofek and MDClone at the inaugural GlobalSTL Health Innovation Summit in June 2017, recognizing the startup's impressive technology and experienced team:  Ofek, MDClone's CEO, also founded Israel's most successful healthcare IT company, dbMotion, which was acquired by U.S.-based Allscripts in 2013 for $235 million.  

GlobalSTL connects potential high-growth companies like MDClone with the right strategic partners in St. Louis. The I² and MDClone partnership highlights the success of GlobalSTL's goals, which are three-fold: (1) provide St. Louis companies access to cutting-edge technology to boost their competitive advantage; (2) grant international companies access to prized U.S. customers and strategic partners; and (3) leverage the first two wins to convince these international companies to open a U.S. headquarters in St. Louis; thus creating jobs and bringing economic activity into the ecosystem.

"This announcement elevates the St. Louis-Israel engagement to a new level, establishing a long-term relationship between two innovation powerhouses," Donn Rubin, President & CEO of BioSTL, said. "This is a win-win-win for Washington University, MDClone, and St. Louis."

"By leveraging MDClone's innovative solutions," Payne said, "This partnership will create a competitive advantage for Washington University and the St. Louis region's emerging healthcare innovation community as leaders in the use of data analytics in order to improve healthcare research, delivery, and outcomes."

About MDClone 

MDClone launched in 2016 with a mission to allow any user across the healthcare ecosystem to ask any question without programming skills and in familiar terminologies, with zero-time to data and insights and with zero-risk to patient privacy. Led by the founding team of dbMotion, a successful Israeli healthcare IT company (acquired by U.S.-based Allscripts in 2013), MDClone developed a comprehensive big-data solution designed for healthcare, featuring proprietary technology for longitudinal data representation and synthetic data generation with never-before possible approaches to healthcare data management, sharing and analysis. In less than two years from inception, MDClone has partnered with the vast majority of the Israeli healthcare market, streamlining healthcare operations, empowering researchers and creating new opportunities for technology development.  In January 2018, MDClone launched its first major project in the U.S. with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

About the Institute for Informatics (I²) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis 

The modern healthcare and life sciences environments have experienced a fundamental shift towards trans-disciplinary, integrative, and data-intensive approaches to basic, clinical, and translational research.  These developments have been coupled with the widespread use of information technology platforms in order to re-engineer of healthcare delivery and achieve greater value alongside improved outcomes and safety. The complex data, information, and knowledge needs associated with these trends requires a comprehensive and systems-level approach to Biomedical Informatics research, education, and practice.  In response to the aforementioned factors, Washington University (WU) has created the Institute for Informatics, providing an academic and professional home for informatics science and practice.   The Institute spans The School of Medicine (SOM) as well as partnerships with the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Institute for Public Health, the Brown School, the Olin School of Business, the Innovations Incubator at BJC HealthCare, and the Cortex Innovation Community. The institute engages in innovative research, workforce development, and informatics service delivery targeting a variety of critical areas of need.

About GlobalSTL 

GlobalSTL, launched in 2014, is an initiative of BioSTL to transform the St. Louis economy based on a foundation of innovation and global interconnectedness. Key to its success is identifying global innovation that brings strategic business value and impact to the St. Louis region's healthcare systems, corporations, research institutions, and ecosystem partners. GlobalSTL recruits high-growth international companies in the healthcare, agriculture, cybersecurity and finance industries.

CONTACT
Maggie Crane 314-422-6783 mcrane@biostl.org 
Alice Hoette 314-273-2212alice_hoette@wustl.edu 
Boaz Gur-Lavie +972-54-4640119 boaz@mdclone.com 

SOURCE MDClone and Institute for Informatics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis