As a result of the collaboration, Molecular Profiling anticipates being able to offer to physicians, in conjunction with their ordering of diagnostic tests from Molecular Profiling, a Personalized Medicine Expert System (PerMedEx). PerMedEx is a sophisticated, proprietary system that allows physicians a high throughput reporting structure to better apply genomic advances to the practice of medicine. The system allows for a more tailored treatment strategy and enhanced reporting, follow-up and more holistic management of the patient's condition.
"The goal of the Molecular Profiling Institute is to give physicians the tools they need to provide a greater level of personalized medicine in the treatment of their patients," said Dr. Robert J. Penny, the president and CEO of Molecular Profiling. "Our alliance with IBM should allow Molecular Profiling to offer physicians a tailored medical strategy for their individual patients."
IBM and Molecular Profiling's joint effort to create a CDI solution is aimed at helping battle cancer by combining IBM's hardware/software expertise and MPI's genomics/clinical expertise. At this stage in the development, Molecular Profiling provides clinical data, modeling, and system testing. Molecular Profiling is also designing and building a Clinical Information Management System (CIMS) and genomic analytic software (GAS), along with synonym and taxonomy dictionaries. IBM's focus on this phase of this project is principally on the development of the infrastructure of CDI, including data repositories, knowledge management, workflow management and user interfaces.
"The industry is aware of the benefits of incorporating informatics capabilities into clinical medicine," said Carol Kovak, Senior VP for IBM Life Sciences. "We are very pleased to have the Molecular Profiling Institute as our partner in this new software application to further advance personalized medicine and improve patient care."
To provide necessary computing power and a scalable knowledge management environment, Molecular Profiling and IBM are deploying a powerful server and storage infrastructure, including IBM WebSphere, DB2 and other middleware applications.
"The hope is that patients will ultimately benefit through the combination of cutting-edge diagnostic testing technology and medical expertise found in the sophisticated computational solutions developed by the IBM Life Sciences Division," said Edward Suh, Sc.D., Molecular Profiling's Chief Information Officer.
Molecular Profiling was founded as the conduit for the commercial application of the Translational Genomics Research Institute's (TGen) research projects and the International Genomics Consortium's (IGC) tissue banking and analysis capabilities. TGen was established by the leaders of the Human Genome Project and includes some of the top researchers in the country.
"TGen's mission is to discover the genetic changes underlying a variety of human diseases, develop and validate diagnostic tests for these diseases, and uncover new, more effective targets and treatment approaches," said Jeffrey M. Trent, Ph.D., TGen president and scientific director. "It is our aim to provide these tests through Molecular Profiling so that they are readily available to the medical community, and ultimately, the general public."
Molecular Profiling has licensing agreements with several firms for new diagnostics and offers its testing principally through its partner AmeriPath, one of the leading anatomic pathology laboratory companies in the United States.
"AmeriPath's partnership with MPI allows our pathologists to continue to be national leaders in the delivery of premier diagnostic testing and healthcare information to the communities and patients that we serve," said Jeffrey Mossler, MD, Vice Chairman of AmeriPath.
About the Molecular Profiling Institute Inc.
Molecular Profiling is a CLIA certified specialty reference laboratory that helps cancer patients worldwide by applying the discoveries of the Human Genome Project to personalized medicine. Molecular Profiling provides cutting-edge testing facilities, products, and resources for genomic and proteomic profiling and treatment of cancers and pharmaceutical services to identify populations that may respond to targeted therapies. Molecular Profiling has strategic relationships with the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), the International Genomics Consortium (IGC), Scottsdale Healthcare, and AmeriPath Inc. Website, www.molecularprofiling.com.
About IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences
IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences brings together IBM resources, including information technology, deep industry insights, and research expertise, to help clients develop and deliver safer, more affordable and more effective diagnostics, drugs and medical care.
About IGC
The International Genomics Consortium (IGC) is a non-profit medical research foundation established to serve common, unmet needs including: the standardization of the collection of properly consented tissues of interest, the molecular characterization of these tissues, and standardization in the representation of these results. For more information about IGC visit www.intgen.org.
About TGen
The mission of the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is to make and translate genomic discoveries into advances in human health. "Translational research" is a relatively new field employing innovative advances, such as genome-wide array technology, and the burgeoning field of computational biology, to provide the data and tools necessary to identify the genes that play a role in hereditary susceptibility to disease. For more information about TGen, visit its Web site, http://www.tgen.org.
About AmeriPath Inc.
AmeriPath is one of the leading anatomic pathology laboratory companies in the United States. AmeriPath offers a broad range of testing and information services used by physicians in the detection, diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of cancer and other diseases and medical conditions. The company's extensive diagnostics infrastructure includes over 400 pathologists and doctorate-level scientists providing services in over 20 states utilizing 40 independent pathology laboratories, more than 200 hospitals, and their Centers of Excellence. See www.ameripath.com.