Nanostics, a precision health company developing diagnostic tests with its ClarityDX platform technology, announced a partnership with Cancer Care Alberta, Alberta Health Services (AHS) to leverage advanced data analytics from Connect Care and the Cancer Care Alberta Data Environment for Cancer Inquiries and Decisions (DECIDe). This agreement will streamline access to Connect Care’s powerful and consolidated “one record, one patient, one health clinical information system” to help drive diagnostic and prognostic innovations in urological care in Alberta.

Developing Tools for Early Urological Disease Detection

Access to Alberta’s clinical information database will greatly boost the progress of an Alberta Innovates funded project, led by John Lewis, PhD, Bird Dogs Chair in Translational Cancer Research at the University of Alberta, in developing new tools for early detection of urological diseases such as bladder cancer. These disease detection tools use both biological and clinical information to accurately determine a patient’s risk of having a specific urological disease so the best treatment can be provided.

The agreement outlines AHS’ commitment to supporting the project by anonymizing the data, running algorithms on the data internally, and sharing the results with Nanostics’ research and development team. In turn, Nanostics’ team will utilize the data and results to generate trained machine learning models to improve the diagnosis and prediction of urological diseases such as bladder cancer. The sharing of new intellectual property and revenue derived from the commercialization of any future technologies was also established.

“Alberta’s one healthcare system for all has created very valuable health-related data assets that are a great resource for researchers and clinicians looking to improve patient care,” says Lewis who is also the CEO. “Partnering with AHS provides an opportunity to apply the data towards developing more accurate tools for the early detection of disease, which will lead to better patient outcomes.”

Further reading: Urine Biomarkers Can Outperform Serum Biomarkers in Certain Diseases

Newly Launched Prostate Test

Nanostics recently launched the ClarityDX Prostate test at its newly accredited clinical lab in Edmonton, Alberta. This blood test, which uses biological data, clinical information, and machine learning models to generate a risk score for aggressive prostate cancer, marks a significant advancement in prostate cancer screening. 

It provides critical support to men aged 40 to 75 and their healthcare providers in making more informed decisions, with three times the accuracy, about whether a biopsy is required following a high prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test result, according to the company. This project will allow Nanostics to expand its product offerings to other urological diseases.

“The Alberta Cancer Foundation is proud of the role philanthropy has played in advancing the innovative and foundational work happening at Nanostics,” says Wendy Beauchesne, CEO of the Alberta Cancer Foundation. “Congratulations to Dr. Lewis and Cancer Care Alberta on this transformative partnership, which is a reflection of all of our commitments to advancing cancer detection and treatment and making life better for people facing urological cancer.”

Featured image: Applying data to develop more accurate tools for early detection of disease, for better patient outcomes. Photo credit: Nanostics