This week, President Joe Biden described his plans to supercharge the American Cancer Moonshot to significantly cut the cancer death rate in half over the next 25 years. In a White House news conference Wednesday, he challenged the medical research community to come together in new, data-driven, collaborative efforts.
SOPHiA GENETICS supports democratizing data-driven medicine for the ultimate benefit of patients and their loved ones. We continue to deliver to our global community by advancing their cancer research capabilities through our technology and our amazing people who work closely with researchers every day.
Why the priority for cancer research now?
Fewer people are visiting their doctors. This means it’s less likely they’re catching the early signs of cancer that their physician could help discover from screening.
During the COVID-19 global pandemic, a Harvard Gazette report showed that there was a sharp decline in routine cancer screening. Some projections showed that in the next five years, the death rate related to cancer could be 4-17% higher because of the limitations brought on by the pandemic. Reports showed decreases of 85-90% and more than 9.5 million missed cancer screenings in the United States, according to facts released from the White House in early February. President Biden said during Wednesday’s press conference that this tide must be turned and that proper cancer screening of Americans must be prioritized.
New approaches
While the American Cancer Moonshot was originally launched in 2016, this new commitment to advancing American healthcare comes with more federal support for research and development through emerging technologies. The idea is that more progress can be achieved through data-sharing initiatives, breaking through traditional silos between medical institutions.
Many advancements in research have allowed for genomic biomarkers to play a larger role in identifying early signs of certain cancers. Those advancements can lead to earlier detection rates and the development of better cancer therapies and treatments. The President acknowledged that the US still has much further to come in advancing data-driven initiatives and that many Americans sadly do not realize the struggle of seeking answers during the cancer diagnostic journey until it’s too late. A proposal was also announced for the creation of an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) that would focus on the U.S. government’s capabilities “to speed research that can improve the health of all Americans”.
Data-Driven Solutions
SOPHiA GENETICS is committed to enhancing clinical research through advanced analysis of medical data through the SOPHiA DDMTM Platform. By enabling faster, more cost effective, and highly accurate data analysis, we continue to make the greatest impact for users who must comb through extremely large sets of clinical data to derive impactful insights that will aid their research.
If you’d like to learn more about how our technology can help improve clinical research, click here.
