SALT LAKE CITY & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation (CCF) today announced a new partnership with Komodo Health™, a first-of-its-kind agreement linking a cancer advocacy group with the leading healthcare analytics and insights delivery company to advance the treatment of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). The agreement allows the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation to access previously inaccessible information, data, and disease-treatment reference points through Komodo Health’s largest, most actionable healthcare map in the U.S.
This new partnership will enable the Foundation to have a nearly real-time and comprehensive picture of the patient landscape, based on Komodo’s proprietary patient graph. With this advance, the Foundation is now equipped to provide patients with timely information on local specialists and give local providers data on promising therapies, including the rapidly emerging options available to CCA patients.
“The partnership we have forged with Komodo Health is truly groundbreaking,” said Stacie Lindsey, president and founder of the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation. “For the first time, we will have access to critical information that will allow us to impact the speed and quality of care for our patients and to objectively identify centers offering the most promising therapies and clinical trials.”
Cholangiocarcinoma is a “silent” form of cancer that originates from the cells lining the bile ducts. It is often labeled a silent disease because many times the signs and symptoms go unnoticed until the cancer is in the advanced stage. Even when early signs and symptoms become known, they may be vague and easily attributed to another disease. Approximately 9,000 new cases are diagnosed each year—and these numbers are growing as CCA has the second highest rising incidence rate.
Given the nature and the toll that cholangiocarcinoma takes on patients, Komodo Health and the Foundation will partner to solve three pressing needs for patients:
- Accelerate access to the best possible care by creating a platform for CCF, patients, providers, and biopharma companies to improve the speed, quality, and options for cholangiocarcinoma care.
- Establish ground-level truth on cholangiocarcinoma epidemiology to help drive additional research and therapies.
- Identify and engage the most relevant members and institutions of the medical and scientific community to help set a higher standard of care for how cholangiocarcinoma patients are treated.
“We are excited to partner with the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation which tirelessly advocates on behalf of patients to find a cure for Cholangiocarcinoma,” said Arif Nathoo, M.D., co-founder and chief executive officer of Komodo Health. “This partnership is a win for patients—combining the capabilities of Komodo Health’s largest patient-centric healthcare map with CCF’s patient advocates and medical panel to accelerate therapies for an underserved and deadly disease.”
The agreement reached between the Foundation and Komodo Health will allow the Foundation to:
- Use anonymized near real-time patient data to see where cholangiocarcinoma patient pools are being treated in both the major cancer centers and locally to help guide CCF education and outreach.
- Design data-driven programs and make decisions that directly affect patients.
- Identify and more effectively partner with biopharma companies who are in early phase development of treatments that might be effective for the patient population.
- Identify opportunities to partner with the major cancer centers for outreach and education programs.
- Identify and engage investigators researching CCA that want to collaborate and join the International Cholangiocarcinoma Research Network (ICRN).
- Create a state-by-state list of CCA specialists based on objective clinical data.
Founded in 2014, Komodo Health has built the most comprehensive patient-centric healthcare data and analytics platform. The platform delivers patient-level insights by dynamically analyzing the broadest array of data across patients, practitioners, and health systems. In addition to the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, their partnerships include others in the healthcare ecosystem including life sciences, providers, payers, and patient advocacy groups. Komodo Health monitors medical data on more than 50 billion clinical transactions, 280 million U.S. patients, 3.5 million healthcare practitioners, and 450,000 healthcare organizations, integrated delivery networks, accountable care organizations, and health systems.
“Real-world data drives new insights that can be used to improve the standard of care,” said Aswin Chandrakantan, M.D., head of Product and chief medical officer at Komodo Health. “We bring modern machine learning approaches to improve our understanding of disease burden. We are proud to join the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation in its battle to cure this rare and deadly disease.”
The Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation and Komodo Health plan to track the impact of the collaboration over time in terms of the increase in the number of patients treated by specialists.
About the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation (CCF)
Founded in 2006, the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation is a global 501(c) (3) non-profit organization whose mission is to find a cure and improve the quality of life for those affected by bile duct cancer. As a rare and lethal disease, cholangiocarcinoma lacks attention and sufficient resources. There is a vast, unmet need for education about cholangiocarcinoma across the entire disease spectrum—from bench to bedside. For that reason, the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation continues its efforts to raise awareness of all stakeholders in the cholangiocarcinoma community through advocacy, education, collaboration and research. More information is available at www.cholangiocarcinoma.org.
About Komodo Health
Komodo Health is a healthcare technology company focused on addressing the global burden of disease through the most representative and actionable healthcare map. Komodo Health’s real-time intelligence engine provides healthcare leaders with the tools to modernize and improve the way they engage and serve the medical community, resulting in a more transparent, efficient, and productive healthcare ecosystem. The Company values a culture of encouraging growth, collaboration, and constructive debate to deliver on its mission to improve patient care and reduce the burden of disease through the world's most actionable healthcare map. Komodo Health was founded in San Francisco in 2014 and is backed by IA Ventures, Felicis Ventures, and McKesson Ventures. To learn more, visit komodohealth.com.
