Mayo Clinic and Mercy health system have formed a 10-year collaboration to develop and commercialize algorithms that tailor patient treatment plans, the health systems said Tuesday.
As part of the agreement, researchers at Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo and St. Louis-based Mercy will identify patterns related to disease prevention and treatments by studying patient data from the two systems. The data, which is de-identified, will be stored in a distributed data network—meaning each organization will maintain control of its data.
The research will inform development of algorithms and other software tools that outline treatment recommendations for patients based on their medical history.
Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
“Both organizations have made and will continue to make significant investment over years in architecture to enable innovation with data without compromising privacy,” a Mayo Clinic spokesperson wrote in an email.
Mayo and Mercy plan to commercialize the algorithms and solutions they co-develop so other healthcare providers can use them. Areas targeted include precision medicine, transplant care, complex cancer, cardiovascular care and neuroscience, according to a news release.
Bringing together data from Mayo Clinic and Mercy creates a more diverse dataset than either organization has individually, hopefully resulting in tools that are less likely to unintentionally ingest biases, the health systems said.
Health systems in recent years have kicked off ventures to corral and analyze de-identified patient data, capitalizing on technology advancements and federal regulations that make it easier to exchange information. Mayo Clinic in 2020 launched a clinical data analytics platform to work with pharmaceutical companies to study new therapies. Fourteen health systems last year launched Truveta, a for-profit data company that’s since grown to 20 health system members.
