nference and BeiGene Collaborate to Drive New B-Cell Cancer Research

nference has been featured in major publications including Bloomberg, New York Times and Scientific America. For media inquiries contact media@nference.net

nference | Featured News

Unlock actionable insights to improve patient outcomes and optimize healthcare delivery with data-driven solutions.

For Health Systems

With our partners - industry leaders, innovators and leading institutions - we’re delivering real-world data insights and shaping transformative solutions in healthcare.  

Harness diverse real-world data types to gain insights across genomic, clinical, and operational dimensions

Data Modality

Deeply integrated gene panel and whole exome sequencing data powered with Agentic AI Solutions

Patient-Consented Biobank

nference’s platform and tools transform real world data into actionable insights for healthcare innovation.

Streamline research with AI-powered tools that transform complex data into actionable medical insights

For Clinical Researchers

Access advanced datasets and cutting-edge analytics to power innovation in healthcare and life sciences.

For Data Scientists

nSights turns complex healthcare data into actionable insights, driving innovation and smarter decision-making in medical research and development.

Revolutionize drug development through AI-driven insights, accelerating timelines and improving clinical trial outcomes.

For Bio Pharma

Empower device innovation with robust data integration and advanced analytics for regulatory and market success.

Medical Devices

Our AI-driven solutions empower clinical trial design, enhance innovation in product development and streamline regulatory submissions.

Characterization of Patients With Narcolepsy Treated vs Not Treated With Sodium Oxybate: A Propensity Score–Matched Cohort Study

Associations of the Fibrosis-4 Index With Rates of Cardiac Events and Liver Decompensation, and the Potential Implications on Risk Stratification in Patients With Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis.

Comparison of two highly-effective mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 during periods of Alpha and Delta variant prevalence

{
"Electrocardiograms": "",
"Gastro-intestinal": "",
"Cardiology": "",
"Metabolic Diseases": "",
"Real-world Effectiveness": "",
"Epidemiology": "",
"Covid-19": "",
"Oncology": "",
"Hepatology": "",
"Mesothelioma": "",
"NSCLC": "",
}

nference's extensive library of publications showcase cutting-edge research and healthcare advancements.

Blogs

nference Establishes AI Initiative with Takeda to Advance Precision Medicine in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

News

Our latest blogs and insights cover industry trends, technological breakthroughs, and expert insights, to keep you updated on the forefront of healthcare innovation.

Cutting-edge AI solutions to transform cardiac care

Empowering digital pathology with a new WSI paradigm

Navbar v2

Research collaboration expedites innovation by leveraging synergies between Valo Health's Opal Computational PlatformTM and the nference Agentic AI platform

CAMBRIDGE and LEXINGTON, Mass., March 18, 2025 – Valo Health, Inc. (“Valo”), a biotechnology company focused on transforming the drug discovery and development process using human-centric data and artificial intelligence (AI), today announced a multi-year collaboration with nference, a company dedicated to transforming healthcare by making biomedical knowledge computable. The research collaboration will leverage decades of comprehensive, HIPAA-compliant, fully de-identified patient-level data from the nference federated AI network to enhance the capabilities of Valo’s Opal Computational Platform™, enabling advances in the discovery and development of drug targets and precision medicines.

“We are entering a new era of medicine made possible by abundant clinical data and an enhanced ability to analyze it,” said Brett Blackman, Ph.D., chief operating officer at Valo Health. “Our collaboration gives us access to nference's deep multimodal, longitudinal data and AI software platform, which will allow us to learn through observation while accelerating and widening the scope of experimentation. Together, with nference and our other ecosystem partners, we aim to shorten the drug development timeline and bring critical treatment options to the patients who need them the most.”

The collaboration grants Valo the ability to use the nference AI platform, the industry’s most comprehensive multimodal biomedical knowledge base, incorporating deep, de-identified insights from top-ranked academic medical centers that are part of the nference federated AI network. Use of the nference AI platform provides Valo with real-time access to a wide range of data modes, including insights from physicians’ notes, medical imaging and outcomes data, patients’ diagnostic and treatment information, and lab results.

The partnership’s unique collaboration model supports Valo’s novel, human-centric approaches to target discovery, clinical translation, and biomarker discovery. As nference brings onboard additional data modalities, Valo will have access to an expanding pool of rich data and advanced analytics tools that will yield deeper insights to support its translational research programs.

“Our partnership with Valo demonstrates how the nference Agentic AI platform can deliver clinical knowledge and de-identified, real-world patient insights to accelerate drug discovery and development,” said Venky Soundararajan, Ph.D., co-founder and chief scientific officer at nference. “In combination with Valo’s digital-native drug discovery process and human-centric data platform, our collaboration will expedite biomedical discovery for those patient populations who have the most unmet clinical needs.”

Valo Health, Inc is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics to better learn from the patient experience to discover and develop better medicines at greater speed and scale. The company’s Opal Platform™ is a human-centric, AI-driven drug development engine that uses AI to identify and validate novel drug targets, using real-world data and human models to rapidly discover and develop small molecule therapies against those targets with more predictable safety and efficacy. Founded by Flagship Pioneering and headquartered in Lexington, Mass., Valo also has offices in New York, N.Y. and Tel Aviv, Israel. To learn more, visit valo​health​.com.

nference is unlocking the potential of healthcare data with Agentic AI, delivering real-world evidence, insights, and solutions informed by the most comprehensive multimodal data across all therapeutic areas. Our extensive de-identified, longitudinal data includes decades of clinical notes along with rich patient histories, vitals, lab tests, radiology images, digital pathology, genomics, and electrophysiology waveforms. Our federated data platform, comprised of premier healthcare organizations, enables advanced research and custom AI model development. With unprecedented access to data from over 40 million patient journeys, our partners can target discovery, accelerate clinical trial design, and optimize lifecycle management. Follow nference on LinkedIn. Visit us at www.nference.com.

nference:
Matthew Hurchik
mhurchik@nference.net

Valo Health and nference Announce Long-term Partnership to Accelerate Human-Centric Drug Discovery and Development

Retrospective analysis reveals no significant differences in comorbidities in narcolepsy patients treated vs. not treated with sodium oxybate

One third of patients taking immediate-release, twice-nightly sodium oxybate discontinued treatment, most often due to lack of efficacy; inability to wake up was most common reason for missing second nightly dose

DUBLIN, April 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avadel Pharmaceuticals plc (Nasdaq: AVDL), a biopharmaceutical company focused on transforming medicines to transform lives, and nference, a health tech company dedicated to making biomedical data computable, today announced the publication of real-world data on comorbidities and treatment patterns of people with narcolepsy treated versus not treated with immediate-release sodium oxybate. The paper, titled “Characterization and Treatment Patterns of Patients Treated With Immediate-Release Sodium Oxybate for Narcolepsy: A Propensity-Matched Cohort Study,” was published online in the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience. 

A review of de-identified electronic health records (EHR) from patients at Mayo Clinic identified 4,387 individuals living with narcolepsy, of whom 351 had received immediate-release sodium oxybate treatment. This cohort of 351 patients with narcolepsy treated with sodium oxybate was age/sex matched with a cohort of 351 patients with narcolepsy without sodium oxybate treatment. The retrospective analysis was conducted through Mayo Clinic’s Clinical Data Analytics Platform, which leverages nference’s AI software to provide access to curated, deidentified electronic health data in a secure, privacy-protected environment. These types of data provide a more comprehensive view of patient information than claims data alone.

No differences between the sodium oxybate treated group and the matched cohort in the rates of the top 10 overall comorbidities (unadjusted analysis), except for idiopathic hypersomnia and fatigue. After adjusting the analysis to reduce the risk of a false positive result, there were no significant differences in the rates of comorbidities between the sodium oxybate cohort and the matched cohortIdiopathic hypersomnia was reported in 22.8% of the sodium oxybate treated group versus 33.0% of the matched cohort; as IH and narcolepsy are mutually exclusive disorders, these results reflect the frequent diagnostic change with repeat testing

The rate of hypertension in the sodium oxybate treated group was 21.1% compared to the matched cohort group of 21.4% (adjusted P>0.9)

The rate of coronary artery disease was 7.1% in both groups (adjusted P>0.9)

Additional findings from the cohort of 351 patients with narcolepsy treated with twice-nightly sodium oxybate revealed that:

Approximately 1/3 had documented clinical notes for discontinuation, with lack of efficacy being most common

Chart review confirmed instances of missing the second doseInability to wake up was the most frequently cited reasonNext-day consequences of the missed second dose (e.g., cataplexy, lower daytime alertness) were documented  

“In this real-world study of de-identified Mayo Clinic EHR data comparing patients treated with sodium oxybate to a matched narcolepsy cohort without sodium oxybate, we see comparable rates of comorbidities, including hypertension and coronary artery disease. Other relevant findings included high rates of insomnia in both groups (approximately 43%), reflecting the frequent disruptive nighttime sleep inherent in narcolepsy,” said Melissa Lipford, M.D., a neurologist at the Center for Sleep Medicine at Mayo Clinic and lead author of the published paper. “The high rate of idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) diagnosis underscores the challenges with distinguishing between narcolepsy and IH based upon current testing. These findings also revealed insights into challenges with middle-of-the-night sodium oxybate dosing and lessened efficacy when the second dose was omitted.”

“This is the second study for which we have collaborated with nference to generate real-world de-identified data from patients with narcolepsy,” said Jennifer Gudeman, Pharm.D., Senior Vice President, Medical and Clinical Affairs of Avadel. “Despite sodium oxybate being FDA approved for more than 20 years, these findings reflect the underutilization of sodium oxybate therapy, some of which may be due to the necessity of first-generation oxybates requiring chronic, middle-of-the-night dosing. These data provide further reassurance into the lack of a signal for sodium oxybate utilization and cardiovascular risk.”

About Avadel Pharmaceuticals plc
Avadel Pharmaceuticals plc (Nasdaq: AVDL) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on transforming medicines to transform lives. Our approach includes applying innovative solutions to the development of medications that address the challenges patients face with current treatment options. Avadel’s commercial product, LUMRYZ™, was approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) as the first and only once-at-bedtime oxybate for the treatment of cataplexy or EDS in patients 7 years of age and older with narcolepsy. For more information, please visit www.avadel.com.

About nference
nference is unlocking the potential of healthcare data with AI, delivering real-world evidence, insights, and solutions informed by the most comprehensive multimodal data across all therapeutic areas. Our extensive de-identified, longitudinal data includes decades of clinical notes along with rich patient histories, vitals, lab tests, radiology images, digital pathology, genomics, and electrophysiology waveforms. Our federated data platform, comprised of premier healthcare organizations, including Banner Health, Duke Health, Emory Healthcare, Mayo Clinic, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, enables advanced research and custom AI model development. With unprecedented access to data from over 40 million patient journeys, our partners can accelerate target discovery, optimize clinical trial design, and enhance lifecycle management. Follow nference on LinkedIn. Visit us at www.nference.com.

Avadel
Investor Contact:
Austin Murtagh
Precision AQ
Austin.Murtagh@precisionaq.com
(212) 698-8696

Media Contact:
Lesley Stanley
Real Chemistry
lestanley@realchemistry.com 
(609) 273-3162

nference
Media Contact:
Matt Hurchik
info@nference.net

Retrospective analysis reveals no significant differences in comorbidities in narcolepsy patients treated vs. not treated with sodium oxybate

Avadel and nference Announce Publication of Real-World Data on Sodium Oxybate Treatment Patterns in the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience

Real-world data study aims to improve treatment options for chronic lymphocytic leukemia and small lymphocytic lymphoma patients

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 16, 2024 – nference, a company dedicated to transforming healthcare by making biomedical data computable, today announced a collaboration with BeiGene, Ltd, a global oncology company that intends to change its name to BeOne Medicines Ltd., to unlock new insights in treating B-cell cancers. The collaboration will leverage nference’s proprietary Agentic AI platform to deepen understanding of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) treatment patterns.

B-cell cancers, including CLL and SLL, are a group of malignancies affecting lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell crucial to immune function. These cancers impact thousands, with CLL being the most common adult leukemia in the U.S. This retrospective descriptive analysis will review more than 700 patient charts to identify real-world treatment patterns.

“Through this collaboration with BeiGene, we aim to uncover valuable real-world insights into treatment patterns and outcomes, helping refine clinical practices,” said Dr. Venky Soundararajan, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at nference. “Our goal is to generate a comprehensive view of real-world outcomes that enhances clinical decisions, leading to more effective, personalized care for patients with CLL, SLL, and other B-cell malignancies.”

About nference
nference is unlocking the potential of healthcare data with AI, delivering real-world evidence, insights, and solutions informed by the most comprehensive multimodal data across all therapeutic areas. Our extensive de-identified, longitudinal data includes decades of clinical notes along with rich patient histories, vitals, lab tests, radiology images, digital pathology, genomics, and electrophysiology waveforms. Our federated data platform, comprised of premier healthcare organizations, including Mayo Clinic, Duke Health, Banner Health, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Emory Healthcare, enables advanced research and custom AI model development. With unprecedented access to data from over 40 million patient journeys, our partners can accelerate target discovery, optimize clinical trial design, and enhance lifecycle management. Follow nference on LinkedIn. Visit us at www.nference.com.

Banner Health and nference, a science-first software company transforming healthcare by making biomedical data computable, today announced a partnership to accelerate scientific discovery to improve treatment, diagnosis, and care.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 22, 2023 – Banner Health and nference, a science-first software company transforming healthcare by making biomedical data computable, today announced a partnership to accelerate scientific discovery to improve treatment, diagnosis, and care.

By incorporating nference’s state-of-the-art analytics capabilities, Banner Health and its researchers can gain valuable insight into diseases and treatments, adapting the practice of medicine to meet the needs of its communities. 

“We’re excited to embark on this innovative partnership that will unlock the insights from our data to further personalize the ways we deliver care to our patients,” said Scott Nordlund, Executive Vice President Chief Strategy and Growth Officer at Banner Health. “This partnership will support our own efforts to improve the care patients receive in our diverse clinical settings and benefit other researchers with global impact on diagnosis and treatment.” 

nference’s Federated Analytics Platform enables researchers and clinicians to derive meaningful insights from proprietary longitudinal clinical datasets, transforming discovery and accelerating development while preserving patient privacy. The platform provides insights from the deepest, de-identified, multimodal (electronic health record, imaging, electrocardiogram) dataset available across therapeutic areas. These include cardiology, oncology, immunology, neuroscience, metabolic diseases, and infectious diseases by leveraging the company’s Federated AI network.

“Our collaboration with Banner Health is an exciting addition to our unique federated network,” said Murali Aravamudan, co-founder and CEO of nference. “Banner Health brings comprehensive, multimodal data from a geographically and ethnically diverse patient population to our network that will provide more potent insight generation, offering researchers the option to examine more inclusive data.”

nference’s agreement with Banner Health builds on recent collaborations with other leading academic medical centers, accelerating nference’s mission to expand its federated network, which is scalable and structured to encourage and facilitate collaboration among healthcare systems and biopharmaceutical researchers.

Through its powerful technology platform and software, nference is transforming healthcare by making biomedical knowledge computable. Its partnerships with major academic medical centers empower nference to synthesize decades of institutional knowledge, producing real-world evidence (RWE) in real time by converting large amounts of de-identified data into deep insights to advance discovery and development of diagnostics and therapeutics. Its proprietary AI-enabled software platform, nSights, harnesses the power of federated learning to accelerate life sciences research, development, and clinical care in significant ways, including biomarker discovery and validation, RWE generation leveraging real-world data, early disease detection, public health policy generation and validation, and more. nference is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. Follow nference on LinkedIn and Twitter. Visit us at www.nference.com.

Banner Health is one of the largest, secular nonprofit health care systems in the country. In addition to 30 acute-care hospitals, Banner also operates an academic medicine division, Banner – University Medicine, and Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, a partnership with one of the world’s leading cancer programs, MD Anderson Cancer Center. Banner’s array of services includes a health insurance division, employed physician groups, outpatient surgery centers, urgent care locations, home care and hospice services, retail pharmacies, stand-alone imaging centers, physical therapy and rehabilitation, behavioral health services, a research division and a nursing registry. To make health care easier, 100% of Banner-employed doctors are available for virtual visits and patients may also reserve spots at Banner Urgent Care locations and can book appointments online with many Banner-employed doctors. Headquartered in Arizona, Banner Health also has locations in California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming. For more information, visit bannerhealth.com.

Andrea Sampson, Sampson Public Relations Group

Banner Health Partners with nference to Accelerate Scientific Discovery for Patient Care

Data demonstrated people with narcolepsy were significantly more likely to have sleep, mood and pain disorders

DUBLIN, Oct. 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avadel Pharmaceuticals plc (Nasdaq: AVDL), a biopharmaceutical company focused on transforming medicines to transform lives, and nference, a health tech company dedicated to making biomedical data computable, today announced the publication of real-world data that identified the demographic characteristics and the top 20 most prevalent comorbidities of people living with narcolepsy.

The paper, titled “Demographic Characteristics and Comorbidities of Patients With Narcolepsy: A Propensity-Matched Cohort Study,” was published online in Sleep Advances. These real-world findings were previously presented at the American Neurological Association (ANA) Annual Meeting in October 2022.

Results describing demographic characteristics and the top 20 comorbidities were based on a review of deidentified electronic health data from more than 2,000 people with narcolepsy and 2,000 matched controls. The retrospective analysis was conducted through Mayo Clinic Platform, which leverages nference’s AI software to provide access to curated, deidentified electronic health data in a secure, privacy-protected environment. These types of data provide a more comprehensive view of patient information than claims data alone.

“This is the first real-world study in narcolepsy to use aggregate electronic health record data,” said Melissa Lipford, M.D., a neurologist at the Center for Sleep Medicine at Mayo Clinic and lead author of the published paper. “We found that people with narcolepsy were more likely to have psychiatric, sleep and pain disorders. Understanding which comorbid conditions are most common should help clinicians better understand the challenges faced by patients with narcolepsy and help them optimize the management of their symptoms with the most appropriate treatment.” 

“We were proud to collaborate with Mayo Clinic Platform and nference to generate these real-world deidentified data from patients seen at the Mayo Clinic Health System. Narcolepsy is a chronic and complex neurological disorder and understanding the most prevalent comorbidities increased in this patient population may help to inform optimal management,” said Jennifer Gudeman, Pharm.D., Senior Vice President, Medical and Clinical Affairs of Avadel. “In contrast to claims-based studies, cardiovascular disease was not among the top 20 co-morbidities found to be increased in the narcolepsy cohort compared to the matched cohort.”

About Avadel Pharmaceuticals plc
Avadel Pharmaceuticals plc (Nasdaq: AVDL) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on transforming medicines to transform lives. Our approach includes applying innovative solutions to the development of medications that address the challenges patients face with current treatment options. Avadel’s commercial product, LUMRYZ, was approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) as the first and only once-at-bedtime oxybate for the treatment of cataplexy or EDS in patients seven years and older with narcolepsy. For more information, please visit www.avadel.com.

Cautionary Disclosure Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements relate to our future expectations, beliefs, plans, strategies, objectives, results, conditions, financial performance, prospects or other events. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, expectations regarding the potential impact of the study on helping clinicians optimize the management of patients’ symptoms with the most appropriate treatment. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “will,” “may,” “could,” “believe,” “expect,” “look forward,” “on track,” “guidance,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “project,” “next steps” and similar expressions and the negatives thereof (if applicable).

The Company’s forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions that are made within the bounds of our knowledge of our business and operations and that we consider reasonable. However, the Company’s business and operations are subject to significant risks, and, as a result, there can be no assurance that actual results and the results of the company’s business and operations will not differ materially from the results contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations in the Company’s forward-looking statements include the risks and uncertainties described in the “Risk Factors” section of Part I, Item 1A of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 29, 2024, and subsequent SEC filings. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and are not guarantees of future performance. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise our forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Avadel
Investor Contact:
Courtney Mogerley
Precision AQ
Courtney.Mogerley@precisionAQ.com
(212) 698-8687

nference
Media Contact:
Andrea Sampson
President/CEO, Sampson Public Relations Group
asampson@sampsonprgroup.com

Avadel Pharmaceuticals and nference Announce Publication of Real-World Data in Sleep Advances

Powered by nference’s advanced machine learning models, the nSights platform will help to contextualize Parabilis’ single arm clinical trial data and inform target ID and clinical biomarker identification.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 12, 2024 – nference today announced a strategic research and data science partnership with Parabilis Medicines, Inc. (“Parabilis”) focused on supporting the clinical development of Parabilis’ lead program, FOG-001, in colorectal cancer. This collaboration will provide Parabilis’ researchers with access to a vast repository of longitudinal, multimodal clinical data from millions of cancer patients sourced from top-tier medical institutions.

Powered by nference’s advanced machine learning models, the nSights platform will help to contextualize Parabilis’ single arm clinical trial data and inform target ID and clinical biomarker identification. The platform will help to accurately identify and characterize real world outcomes in patient cohorts that could benefit from Parabilis’ lead program, FOG-001, a beta-catenin inhibitor which is being investigated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for colorectal cancer, one of the most prevalent and challenging cancers worldwide.

“At nference, we are committed to advancing cancer care by harnessing AI and real-world patient journeys to unlock valuable insights that can drive better treatment outcomes,” said Dr. AJ Venkatakrishnan, SVP of Strategic AI Partnerships at nference.

“By leveraging our nSights platform and biomedical research capabilities, we aim to accelerate Parabilis’ groundbreaking work in developing Helicon™ therapeutics, offering new hope for patients with difficult-to-treat cancers,” said Aaron Mathias, VP of Business Development & Corporate Strategy at nference.

“We are excited about this collaboration with nference,” said Dr. Brandon Allgood, Chief Data Science Officer at Parabilis. “The nSights platform will enable us to tap into a large depth of real-world, multimodal clinical data, helping us identify optimal patient populations and improve the targeting of our programs. By combining advanced AI, robust computational methods, and a continuous learning system built on our growing data repository, we are creating a transformative platform that not only accelerates drug discovery and development but also increases the precision and success of our therapeutic programs.”

About Parabilis Medicines (Formerly FogPharma)
Parabilis Medicines™ is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to creating extraordinary medicines for people living with cancer. Through its pioneering Helicon™ discovery platform, Parabilis is engineering precisely tuned, stabilized helical peptide therapeutics that have the potential to unlock a large number of traditionally undruggable targets. FOG-001, the company’s first-in-class TCF-blocking β-catenin inhibitor and lead clinical program, is being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 study for patients with colorectal cancer and other solid tumors and is proof of the applicability of the platform to address undruggable intracellular protein-protein targets. The company is additionally advancing a pipeline of other first-in-class programs that target proteins known to be relevant to numerous cancers but considered intractable with traditional drug modalities. The versatility of the Helicon approach allows for the discovery of multiple targeting mechanisms, including functional protein-protein interaction inhibitors, bifunctional degraders, and radioligand therapeutics. Parabilis is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., and is well-capitalized, with more than $500 million raised to date from leading life sciences investors. For more information, please visit: www.parabilismed.com.


nference Establishes AI Research Partnership with Parabilis Medicines in Colorectal Cancer

Collaboration aims to identify personalized treatment approaches and improve care for patients with IBD

nference today announced a strategic research alliance with Takeda aimed at harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize patient care in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a chronic gastrointestinal disorder affecting millions globally.

The collaboration, known as Project SUCCINCT (Systematic UC & Crohn’s INformatics Clinical Toolkit), will utilize nference’s advanced machine learning models to analyze de-identified electronic health records. By harnessing AI to identify patients who could benefit from advanced medical interventions, the initiative aims to personalize treatment options and improve care for those living with IBD.

“Takeda is at the forefront of gastroenterology, especially in the area of IBD, and we are honored to collaborate with them on this critical research,” said Maulik Nanavaty, President of Ventures at nference & CEO at Anumana. “Project SUCCINCT seeks to fill a void by more effectively managing treatment of patients early in their IBD journey, which persists as an area of significant unmet medical need due to its intricate and diverse nature. This initiative will leverage our state-of-the-art, AI-enabled platform to unlock previously undiscovered insights and information that will help facilitate more precise and targeted interventions with the disease.”

“AI-driven innovation represents a promising new frontier in medicine. We’re pleased to join forces with nference on this vital research endeavor seeking to improve the diagnostic and treatment journey for patients around the world living with IBD,” said Vijay Yajnik, MD, PhD, Vice President, Head of U.S. Medical in Gastroenterology at Takeda, a biopharmaceutical leader headquartered in Japan with a global hub in Cambridge, Mass.“ By harnessing AI, we can push beyond the boundaries of what is possible today to empower healthcare providers with information to help tailor treatment selection for patients, precisely when needed.”

nference's federated AI platform, nSights, introduced in 2021, provides researchers with access to insights from a curated, de-identified dataset spanning all therapeutic areas, including gastroenterology, cardiology, oncology, metabolic diseases, immunology, and infectious diseases.

nference is unlocking the potential of healthcare data with AI, delivering real-world evidence, insights, and solutions informed by the most comprehensive multimodal data across all therapeutic areas. Our extensive de-identified, longitudinal data includes decades of clinical notes along with rich patient histories, vitals, lab tests, radiology images, digital pathology, genomics, and electrophysiology waveforms. Our federated data platform, comprised of premier healthcare organizations, including Mayo Clinic, Duke Health, Banner Health, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Emory Healthcare, enables advanced research and custom AI model development. With unprecedented access to data from over 40 million patient journeys, our partners can accelerate target discovery, optimize clinical trial design, and enhance lifecycle management. Follow nference on LinkedIn. Visit us at www.nference.com.


Andrea Sampson
President/CEO, Sampson Public Relations Group
asampson@sampsonprgroup.com

Based on pioneering research from Mayo Clinic, ECG-AI LEF aims to aid physicians in identifying low ejection fraction in patients at risk of heart failure.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Oct. 2, 2023 – Anumana, Inc., a leading AI-driven health technology and nference portfolio company working in collaboration with Mayo Clinic, today announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance for ECG-AI LEF, a breakthrough artificial intelligence (AI)-powered medical device to detect low ejection fraction (LEF) in patients at risk of heart failure.

LEF, or a weak heart pump, is a significant, at times asymptomatic, and commonly undiagnosed indicator of heart failure.1 The increasing prevalence of heart failure and its associated morbidity, mortality, rehospitalizations, and societal costs2,3 underscores the need to identify and manage patients with LEF.

“Anumana’s ECG-AI LEF fills an important unmet need – the lack of an easily accessible point-of-care, noninvasive, and inexpensive tool to screen for a weak heart pump,” said Paul Friedman, M.D., chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. and chair of Anumana’s Board of Advisors. “It allows identification of otherwise hidden disease, for which many effective, lifesaving treatments are available – once the presence of the disease is known.”

Developed in partnership with Mayo Clinic, Anumana’s ECG-AI LEF is an innovative software-as-a-medical device (SaMD) designed to screen for LEF in adults at risk for heart failure using data from a routine 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG), a rapid and common test used in both primary and specialty care. Based on pioneering research from Mayo Clinic,4 the algorithm has been developed utilizing over 100,000 ECG and echocardiogram data pairs from unique patients and has been clinically tested in more than 25 studies involving more than 40,000 patients in the U.S. and internationally.5

Anumana’s ECG-AI LEF was clinically validated in a multi-site, retrospective clinical study of 16,000 racially diverse patients, achieving its primary endpoint with an 84.5% sensitivity and 83.6% specificity.6 ECG-AI LEF achieved an AUROC7 of 0.932, demonstrating an ability to differentiate between LEF and ejection fraction (EF) >40% extremely well (a score ≥0.90 is considered excellent8) and better than most tests currently used in heart failure standard of care.9

Additionally, the EAGLE study, a groundbreaking prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trial by Mayo Clinic evaluated the use of an investigational version of the algorithm in routine clinical care of 22,641 adults by 120 primary care teams from 45 clinics or hospitals, demonstrating that ECG-AI LEF implementation improved clinician’s ability to diagnosis of LEF by 31% versus standard of care without increasing the overall rate of echocardiogram usage.10

ECG-AI LEF is one of Anumana’s broad pipeline of algorithms, including three additional FDA breakthrough device designation algorithms (pulmonary hypertension, cardiac amyloidosis, and hyperkalemia), and is founded on more than six years of pioneering ECG-AI research and development at Mayo Clinic, including nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications to date.

“Anumana was established in 2021 by nference in partnership with Mayo Clinic to unlock the electrical language of the heart through deep learning and improve disease diagnosis and patient care,” said Murali Aravamudan, co-founder and CEO of Anumana and nference. “In the short time of two years we have secured multiple FDA breakthrough device designations, entered multi-year agreements with three pharma partners, successfully established two new medical procedure codes for ECG AI technology, and now achieved our first FDA breakthrough medical device clearance. This is a significant milestone, and we are excited about the next phase of the journey, deploying our technology in the U.S. and globally to empower clinicians and enhance real-world clinical care.”

Anumana is focused on driving fast-paced adoption of the new ECG-AI category, clinically developing and commercializing its novel technologies in healthcare. The newly FDA-cleared ECG-AI LEF can be easily integrated with various ECG information management systems or directly with a patient’s electronic health record via Anumana’s web-based ECG Viewer to support clinical decision-making.

Anumana spearheaded the effort to bring reimbursement to ECG-AI, receiving approval for two Category III CPT® codes from the American Medical Association in 2022. These codes are now available and designed to facilitate the use, adoption, and potential reimbursement of emerging technologies in clinical workflows.

To learn more about ECG-AI LEF and schedule a demo, visit us at ECG-AI LEF.

Anumana is a leading AI-driven health technology company leveraging cutting-edge AI and industry-leading translational science to unlock the electrical language of the heart as never before. The company was founded by nference in partnership with Mayo Clinic to leverage the clinical and technical expertise of both organizations to develop innovative ECG-AI technology from an investigational resource to a clinically meaningful tool for clinicians to advance patient care. Anumana’s software-as-a-medical device (SaMD) solutions aim to detect hidden diseases using ECG-AI algorithms to enhance and improve interventional procedures through real-time AI insights.

Anumana was named one of Fierce MedTech’s Fierce 15 companies for 2022. Follow Anumana at anumana.ai and on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Dr. Friedman and Mayo Clinic have a financial interest in the technology referenced in this press release. Mayo Clinic will use any revenue it receives to support its not-for-profit mission in patient care, education, and research.

1.     Jaskanwal D Sara, Takumi Toya, Riad Taher, Amir Lerman, Bernard J Gersh, Nandan S Anavekar. Asymptomatic Left Ventricle Systolic Dysfunction. European Cardiology Review 2020, 15:e13; https://doi.org/10.15420/ecr.2019.14.

2.     Tsao, C.W., Aday, A.W., Almarzooq Z.I., et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2023 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association. Circulation Vol. 147, No. 8; https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001123#d330256e1.

3.     Khazanie P, Allen LA. Systematizing Heart Failure Population Health. Heart Fail Clin. 2020 Oct;16(4):457-466. Doi: 10.1016/j.hfc.2020.06.006. Epub 2020 Jul 21. PMID: 32888640; PMCID: PMC7737815; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7737815/.

4.     Attia, Z.I., Kapa, S., Lopez-Jimenez, F. et al. Screening for cardiac contractile dysfunction using an artificial intelligence–enabled electrocardiogram. Nat Med 25, 70–74 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-018-0240-2.

5.     Anumana data on file and published studies.

6.     Anumana data on file (NCT04963218).

7.     Area Under the Receiving Operating Characteristic curve (AUROC) is a performance metric commonly used to evaluate the ability of a model to distinguish between two classes. An AUROC of 0.5 suggests that the model is no better than random and an AUROC of 1.0 indicates a perfect classifier; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receiver_operating_characteristic.

8.     Muller MP, Tomlinson G, Marrie TJ, Tang P, McGeer A, Low DE, et al. Can routine laboratory tests discriminate between severe acute respiratory syndrome and other causes of community-acquired pneumonia? Clin Infect Dis. 40:1079–86 (2005); https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8831439/.

9.     Such as NT-proBNP, a common blood test used to help identify LEF today with an AUROC of 0.83; Koschack, J., Scherer, M., Lüers, C. et al. Natriuretic peptide vs. clinical information for diagnosis of left ventricular systolic dysfunction in primary care. BMC Fam Pract 9, 14 (2008); https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-9-14h.

10.   Yao, X., Rushlow, D.R., Inselman, J.W. et al. Artificial intelligence–enabled electrocardiograms for identification of patients with low ejection fraction: a pragmatic, randomized clinical trial. Nat Med 27, 815–819 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01335-4.

Pazanga Health Communications for Anumana

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Oct. 2, 2023 – Anumana, Inc., a leading AI-driven health technology and nference portfolio company working in collaboration with Mayo Clinic...

Anumana Receives U.S. FDA 510(k) Clearance for ECG-AI Algorithm to Detect Low Ejection Fraction

Mayo Clinic has expanded its relationship with artificial intelligence-driven health tech company Nference to use deidentified patient data to help research and discover disease diagnoses and treatments.

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic has expanded its relationship with artificial intelligence-driven health tech company Nference to use deidentified patient data to help research and discover disease diagnoses and treatments.

As part of the project, the academic health system's data analytics hub, Mayo Clinic Platform, has launched its own version of Nference's nSights platform, called Mayo Clinic Platform_Discover. The project will allow biotech, medical device and diagnostic companies access to the EHR data, which Mayo notes is anonymous and never leaves its system.

"Over the past year, our collaboration with Nference, leveraging nSights, has accelerated clinical decision support and care in significant ways," Mayo Clinic Platform COO Maneesh Goyal said in a Sept. 21 health system news release. "Data-derived insights and knowledge help us accelerate and enhance innovation and meet the unmet needs of patients everywhere."

Mayo Clinic expands partnership with AI firm on disease diagnosis, treatment discovery

COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are effective against infection among nursing home residents, but effectiveness declined in recent months.

Effectiveness of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Vaccines in Preventing SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Nursing Home Residents Before and During Widespread Circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 (Delta) Variant — National Healthcare Safety Network, March 1–August 1, 2021

Developed in collaboration with Janssen and Mayo Clinic, this technology has the potential to aid physicians in earlier detection of pulmonary hypertension, a progressive, life-threatening disease

FDA Grants Breakthrough Device Designation to Anumana’s ECG Pulmonary Hypertension Early Detection AI Algorithm

Funding broadens nference portfolio to accelerate development of novel diagnostics and therapies based on nferX™ software

nference Completes $60M Series C to Accelerate and Expand Augmented Intelligence for Life Sciences

Pramana, Inc., an AI-enabled health-tech company modernizing the pathology sector, launched its Digital Pathology as a Service (DPaaS) solution for creating digital pathology repositories and also announced its first commercial agreement. The DPaaS platform offers a first-of-its-kind service to efficiently digitize pathology slides to meet the needs of pathologists, researchers, and clinicians.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pramana, Inc., an AI-enabled health-tech company modernizing the pathology sector, launched its Digital Pathology as a Service (DPaaS) solution for creating digital pathology repositories and also announced its first commercial agreement. The DPaaS platform offers a first-of-its-kind service to efficiently digitize pathology slides to meet the needs of pathologists, researchers, and clinicians.

Despite the potential value and impact of digitizing pathology archives, few pathology labs have achieved large scale digital libraries. Due to the vastly different slide preparation methods over the years as well as the deterioration of slides in storage, the highly labor-intensive process often results in poor quality and inconsistent images. Pramana’s vertically integrated solution offers a completely automated means for digitization at scale, enabling significant operational efficiencies by limiting human intervention.

“It is often misconstrued that the challenges with going digital for tissue and body fluid slides end with the purchase of a scanner,” said Prasanth Perugupalli, Chief Product Officer at Pramana. “We realized that the greater pain and costs lie in the human capital needed to operate the scanners, which includes making the correct parametric selections and qualifying each whole slide image for any errors after the scanning is completed. Pramana’s DPaaS solution overcomes these challenges with minimal burden on the labs and delivers quality-assured whole slide images with standardized and open data formats.”

Pramana uses its intelligent whole slide image acquisition system, fed by a robot and analyzed by proprietary algorithms, to achieve 100% real-time, fully automated quality assessment. A single scanning cluster is capable of scanning over 1,000 slides per day, and Pramana can scale up or down efficiently to achieve customer-desired throughput.

Pramana’s first commercial agreement with Mayo Clinic is a multi-year collaboration that includes an industry-leading initiative to digitize 5 million slides – one of the largest digitization efforts in the world to date, at an unprecedented rate.

Pramana will introduce its DPaaS solution at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathologists (USCAP) Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, March 19–24 (booth #728). For more information or to schedule a meeting with Pramana, contact uscap@pramana.ai.

Pramana, Inc., a health-tech company founded by nference, inc., enables seamless digital adoption by pathology labs and medical centers. Built upon extensive industry experience and patented technological innovation, Pramana is a gateway for pathologists and physicians to utilize AI-enabled decision support. The company is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., and backed by Matrix Capital, a global leader in customized investment solutions, and NTTVC, a leading firm backing diverse founders within the technology spectrum. For more information, visit www.pramana.ai.

Andrea Sampson, Sampson Public Relations Group 

Pramana Launches Digital Pathology as a Service Platform, Offering Comprehensive and Scalable Glass Slide Digitization for Health Systems

Published in PNAS Nexus, this study has the ability to impact future research and inform more proactive and sustainable pandemic preparedness.

nference and the NIH Identify Which Mutations Enable Highly Transmissible Viruses, Like SARS-CoV-2, to Persist in Human Circulation

nference’s federated AI platform is being leveraged to provide access to the deepest clinical data to generate insights and better inform decision-making

nference, a company dedicated to transforming healthcare by making biomedical data computable, today announced a multi-year licensing agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This collaboration provides the Gates Foundation access to nference's nSights platform, where researchers can access a repository of extensive clinical data and expertise from top-ranked medical institutions. 

The nSights platform, leveraging nference’s federated network, will provide resources to help the Gates Foundation more easily visualize and investigate pressing issues affecting world health today. The platform offers data-driven insights to help research teams learn more about healthcare, diseases, and treatments relevant to the Foundation’s interests. This knowledge will contribute to informed decision-making and the development of impactful treatments.

"At the heart of this collaboration lies our commitment to supporting humanitarian causes with our cutting-edge technology platform, driving near-term tangible impact in health equity,” said Maulik Nanavaty, President of Ventures at nference & CEO at Anumana. “Through access to nference’s federated AI – with its depth of multimodal and unprecedented longitudinal data – we aim to accelerate the contribution of modern and innovative healthcare solutions on a global scale.”

About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. For over 20 years, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been committed to tackling the greatest inequities in our world. It focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of Co-chairs Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates and the board of trustees. https://www.gatesfoundation.org/

nference Announces Multi-Year Funding from Global Foundation to Advance Health Equity

Anumana acquires NeuTrace, a medical technology company advancing novel in-procedure AI applications for Electrophysiology (EP)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 7, 2022 – Anumana, an AI-driven health technology company and portfolio company of nference, announced today it has acquired NeuTrace, a medical technology company advancing novel in-procedure AI applications for electrophysiology (EP). The acquisition includes the NeuTrace EP Data Biome platform and a portfolio of AI-enabled EP software applications in development. As part of the transaction, nference acquired rights to the Data Biome platform for uses outside of the cardiovascular field.

The acquisition positions Anumana as a leader in AI medical software development for cardiac electrophysiology, with a combined development capability - powered by nference’s nSights real world evidence generation platform - that can integrate a patient’s entire electronic medical record (EMR) with corresponding electrocardiograms (ECG) taken from the surface of the body and cardiac electrograms (EGM) taken from within the heart.

Rooted in deep data science and covered by more than 35 pending and registered patents, the NeuTrace EP Data Biome is a proprietary and device-agnostic platform for holistic in-procedure data integration and novel real-time AI applications. A portfolio of EP applications is under development with the potential to increase procedure accuracy, reduce procedure time, and improve patient safety and outcomes. Advanced deep learning techniques on in-procedure EGM and ECG data feeds, combined with pre- and post-procedure ECG and EMR data records, will enable new and improved ECG-AI based diagnostic and pre-diagnostic algorithms for early disease detection and treatment.

“Anumana is pioneering new ground in cardiology AI software solutions that span the entire patient journey,” said David McMullin, chief business officer of Anumana. “With its deep learning models detecting patterns too subtle for the human eye to see, from undiagnosed disease in routine ECGs to real-time EGM signals during critical EP procedures, Anumana is on a mission to improve patient care by unlocking the electrical language of the heart as never before.”

“We’ve been impressed by the complementary depth, breadth, and strength of the Anumana and nference teams and are excited by the transformative potential of the combined organizations,” said Srijoy Mahapatra, M.D., president and chief operating officer of NeuTrace. “Combining the power of NeuTrace’s EP Data Biome with EMR and other data modalities of nference’s nSights platform has the potential to unlock game-changing AI applications in early cardiovascular disease detection, rhythm management, and EP procedure safety, efficacy, and effectiveness, for improved long-term outcomes.”

"NeuTrace promises to significantly improve care through applied AI in both expert and non-expert EP labs,” said Pierre Jais, M.D., LYRC-Bordeaux and NeuTrace medical advisor. “As new tools come on-line in the EP lab, we will need artificial intelligence more than ever. By pairing these intraprocedural data with ECGs and full medical records, Anumana has the opportunity for AI-tailored recommendations patient-by-patient, which would be true precision medicine.”

"Electrophysiology and other cardiology procedures are extremely rich in data that has largely remained untapped when it comes to machine learning and deep learning techniques,” said K. Shivkumar, M.D., Ph.D., Director of UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center & Interventional Cardiovascular Programs.* “The techniques and products that Anumana and nference are developing, especially when integrated with NeuTrace’s in-procedure technology, are groundbreaking not only in cardiology, but also when applied to other organs such as the brain and kidney. I look forward to the next-gen technologies that Anumana and nference’s combination with NeuTrace will produce.”

NeuTrace was founded by Dr. K.Shivkumar and his colleagues, and molded with the business vision and guidance from Raghu Mendu and NC Murthy, along with leading AI/ML and Data technology experts. NeuTrace’s mission is to democratize clinical practice, starting with cardiac electrophysiology, by applying its agnostic technology platform and AI in clinical procedures, to greatly improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of patient care and outcomes.

Anumana, an AI-driven health technology company and portfolio company of nference and Mayo Clinic Platform, is harnessing industry-leading AI and translational science to unlock the electrical language of the heart as never before. Anumana algorithms have been developed, trained, and validated using clinical data from Mayo Clinic and other leading institutions to detect hidden diseases using ECG-AI and enhance and improve EP procedures through real-time AI techniques. Multiple Anumana algorithms have received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation and are currently undergoing rigorous clinical trial validation. Anumana software devices are designed for real-world physician use, integrating into existing workflows at the point-of-care, thereby reducing costs and enhancing quality of life. Anumana algorithms are investigational medical devices and have not yet received regulatory approval or clearance. For more information, visit anumana.ai and follow Anumana on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Through its powerful technology platform and software, nference is transforming health care by making biomedical knowledge computable. Its partnership with Mayo Clinic and other renowned academic medical centers has given nference an opportunity to synthesize decades of institutional knowledge, producing real-world evidence in real-time by converting large amounts of de-identified data into deep insights to advance discovery and development of diagnostics and therapeutics. Its proprietary AI-enabled software platform, nSights, has been used to accelerate life sciences research, development, and clinical care in significant ways, including biomarker discovery and validation, real-world evidence generation leveraging real-world data, early disease detection, public health policy generation and validation, and more. For more information, visit www.nference.com and follow nference on LinkedIn and Twitter.

*Dr. Shivkumar is a founder of NeuTrace, and the views expressed by him are his own and do not represent the views of UCLA.

Anumana Acquires NeuTrace, Establishing a Comprehensive Electrophysiology Deep-Learning Development Platform and Product Pipeline

nference co-founder and chief scientific officer discusses a novel approach to assessing variants of concern regionally with CBS News.

How is the BA.5 COVID-19 variant different from other strains?

Duke Health has teamed up with nference to utilize the software company’s analytics platform to bolster medical research and patient care.

Duke Health partners with nference to reveal EHR insights, improve care

A retrospective comparative study confirmed that both vaccines provide strong protection against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- nference, the AI-driven health technology company, announced today publication of a peer-reviewed study in Med that analyzed Mayo Clinic based data with nference artificial intelligence (AI) software to determine that both the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines were over 70% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 between December 2020 and September 2021, including periods of Alpha and Delta variants of concern circulation.

The authors of "Comparative effectiveness of mRNA-1273 and BNT162b2 against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection" used a test-negative case-control design to assess the odds of symptomatic infection after full vaccination against COVID-19 with either mRNA-1273 (the Moderna vaccine) or BNT162b2 (the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine).

The data from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona, Iowa and Florida was retrospectively collected at Mayo Clinic between December 2020 and September 2021, and retrospectively reviewed to examine the ongoing real-world effectiveness of each vaccine. The results indicated that over the whole study duration, the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines were 84% and 76% effective against symptomatic COVID-19, respectively. Their effectiveness was lower during the recent Delta variant-dominated months, but both vaccines have continued to offer strong protection against symptomatic disease in this period, with effectiveness estimates of 76% and 64%, respectively. The authors note that the reduced effectiveness in later months could be due to less efficient neutralization of the Delta variant, waning of vaccine-elicited immunity over time, changes in nonpharmaceutical interventions (e.g., masking policies, physical distancing, and travel restrictions), or a combination of these factors.

Med is Cell Press's flagship medical journal, improving global health and facilitating the exchange of knowledge and ideas among researchers, clinicians, biotech and pharma scientists, and health policy experts.

"This study further supports the effectiveness of both mRNA vaccines in preventing COVID-19 despite the evolution  and spread of multiple variants of concern during the study period," said AJ Venkatakrishnan, PhD, Vice President of Scientific Research at nference and co-author of the study.

The innovative and powerful AI technology implemented by nference during the COVID-19 pandemic has enabled discoveries with a wide range of implications that contribute to a greater understanding of the virus, which are ultimately advancing patient care.

Comparative effectiveness of mRNA-1273 and BNT162b2 against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection

Duke Health has partnered with data analytics company nference to advance the academic health system's research and medical discoveries.

Durham, N.C.-based Duke Health has partnered with data analytics company Nference to advance the academic health system's research and medical discoveries.

Nference has previously collaborated with Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic on artificial intelligence-powered disease diagnosis and treatment and received funding from its venture capital arm, Mayo Clinic Ventures.

"The average time for life-saving research to get from the bench to bedside, and then to our communities, can take up to 17 years," said Jeffrey Ferranti, MD, senior vice president and chief digital officer of Duke Health, in a joint Jan. 4 news release. "During this time many patients miss out on access to next-generation cures, and we have a responsibility to lead in bringing these cures to patients faster."

The two entities said the collaboration will grow and evolve in the coming years.

Duke Health, Nference partner on analytics research, medical discoveries

EHR data verifies the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine – known publicly as the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine – was over 73 percent effective against SARS-CoV-2 infections during the first five months after initial rollout.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., November 2, 2021 –– nference, the AI-driven health technology company, today announced publication of a study in JAMA Network Open that analyzed Mayo Clinic data with nference augmented intelligence (AI) software to determine that the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine was over 73 percent effective at reducing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 during the study period (February to July, 2021).

Authors of “Analysis of the Effectiveness of the Ad26.COV2.S Adenoviral Vector Vaccine for Preventing COVID-19” conducted a preliminary assessment of the effectiveness of the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine based on the electronic health record (EHR) data of 8,889 vaccinated patients and 88,898 unvaccinated patients. The data was captured by the Mayo Clinic between February 27 and July 22, 2021 and was used to establish a retrospective baseline for the vaccine’s efficacy. The results show that the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine’s overall effectiveness was 73.6 percent and that the Ad26.COV2.S facilitated a 3.73-fold reduction in SARS-CoV-2 infections during this time period.

JAMA Network Open is an open access medical journal published by the American Medical Association and covering all aspects of the biomedical sciences.

“As COVID-19 vaccinations continue to be administered more broadly, it has become critical for researchers and scientists to continuously assess the safety and effectiveness data for each of the vaccines,” said Tyler Wagner, PhD, vice president of biomedical research at nference. “Using nference’s state-of-the-art AI technology, we were able to quickly and accurately process and analyze the data collected by our partners at the Mayo Clinic, and these findings conclude that the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine was effective against the spread of SARS-CoV-2 during the study period.”

In the process of conducting this study, nference employed its leading-edge augmented intelligence software, nferX™, which uses proprietary natural language processing technology to rapidly synthesize vast amounts of biomedical data from disparate sources in previously incompatible formats. nference’s real-time software will continue to monitor and enable rapid up-to-date safety assessments of vaccines as new and updated patient information becomes available. A follow-on study examining the durability of the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine with the Delta variant will be forthcoming. 

This innovative, powerful augmented intelligence technology implemented by nference during the COVID-19 pandemic has enabled several significant discoveries with a wide range of implications that contribute to a greater understanding of the virus, which are ultimately advancing patient care. 