PARKINSON'S INSTITUTE AND CLINICAL CENTER PARTNERS WITH IO
INFORMATICS TO ADVANCE PARKINSON'S DISEASE RESEARCH
Integrated access to over 25 years of Parkinson's disease high quality data and related public
data provides a major step forward for precision medicine research and collaboration
Berkeley, CA, Sunnyvale, CA - November 9, 2015
The Parkinson's Institute and Clinical Center (www.thepi.org ) and IO Informatics, Inc. ("IOI" -
www.io-informatics.com ) today formally announced their collaboration that has resulted in the
creation of "Parkinson's InsightT", an integrated data environment for personalized medicine,
clinical informatics research and collaboration.
Dr. J. William Langston, MD, founder and CSO of the Parkinson's Institute commented,
"When we founded the Institute over 25 years ago it was my dream and vision to collect high
quality clinical and research data because I knew it was going to be critical to helping us to solve
the mystery of Parkinson's. Now we've got the data but connecting it is the next most important
step in solving the puzzle. By working with IO Informatics and deploying their semantic
technology tools and services we are integrating our data and application resources in a powerful
way that will allow us to interrogate the data and find new connections that otherwise would
elude us. I feel confident that the solution to Parkinson's may very well reside in the data we
already have in our archives. We just need to look at it in a new way and start connecting all the
dots."
The Parkinson's Institute and Clinical Center has partnered with IOI to apply advanced semantic
technologies to integrate and search the Institute's data, including decades of carefully secured
information related to disease presentation and progression, image data, treatment information,
genetic, protein and metabolic information and information from extensive electronic medical
records. Semantic technologies are the World-Wide-Web Consortium ("w3c" - www.w3c.org)
global standard for research data integration.
"It is challenging to connect and search the valuable data we have collected during our 25 years
of clinical care and research," said Dr. Carrolee Barlow, MD, PhD, CEO of the Parkinson's
Institute. "We have close to 100 different data sources containing the highest quality
information. Our physicians and scientists couldn't ask questions of the data without doing an
enormous amount of tedious manual work."
IOI's CEO Robert Stanley explains, "Connecting complex data collected over many years while
ensuring that new data can be automatically added and easily integrated into the existing data has
been a roadblock to therapeutic advancement for decades. In order for data to be useful, it must
be connected by meaningful relationships, with consistent and common identifiers. Our
SentientTM informatics software platform handles these problems through smart computation
methods that lets the computer do most of the work. Sentient combines artificial intelligence
(using specialized "semantic" methods), advanced math and specialized scientific dictionaries to
make it possible to ask mission-critical questions across previously disconnected data sources.
For an analogy to how this works, think of a meeting of several people with a common problem
to solve, but each speaking a different language. Sure, information can be exchanged by
gestures, but a truly rich combination of collected wisdom is impossible. Insights remain hidden.
This is a common situation in clinical research today. Following the language analogy,
SentientTM acts like a translator that harmonizes meanings and relationships from any language
(or data source) to any other. Instead of a series of separate data silos, we create a seamlessly
connected data network. For a small fraction of its original cost, the Parkinson's Institute can
uncover insights hidden in the 25 years of data they already have."
To learn more about the state of the art for data harmonization and integration in Healthcare and
Life Sciences, contact IOI.
About the Parkinson's Institute and Clinical Center
Two and a half decades ago, Dr. J. William Langston and a dedicated group of Parkinson's
disease experts set out to create a better way to research and provide care for Parkinson's
disease. Patients would become partners in developing their care plans, improving their quality
of life, and discovering new strategies to confront and manage their disease. Compassionate
care would work hand in hand with cutting-edge research to seek answers, develop new
therapies and treatments, and ultimately work toward a cure. The result was the Parkinson's
Institute and Clinical Center-based in Sunnyvale, California-America's only independent
nonprofit organization combining world-class care, clinical research, laboratory research, and
clinical trials for Parkinson's disease under one roof. The Institute's research focus areas
include: biomarker discovery and clinical research; translational research on genetic forms of
Parkinson's; a world class LRRK2 research and drug discovery program (LRRK2 mutations are
the most common known cause of familial or inherited Parkinson's disease); stem cell modeling
referred to as "Parkinson's disease in a Petri dish"; and clinical trials and research on the
diagnosis and treatment of the motor and non-motor related and early features of Parkinson's.
To learn more and to support their mission visit ParkinsonsInstitute.org,
Facebook.com/PDpartner, and
Twitter.com/PDpartner or call toll free, (800) 655-2273.
ABOUT IO INFORMATICS
IO is at the forefront of the semantic technology wave. The Company provides software and services for
uniquely efficient data integration and transformative knowledge applications in life sciences, biotechnology,
pharmaceutical, and medical environments. IO is headquartered in Berkeley, California with offices in Canada,
Western and Eastern Europe and Asia that partner with life science and healthcare customers in industry,
academia and non-for-profit foundations. IOI participated in the tranSMART Cross
Neurodegenerative Disease Datathon (http://transmartfoundation.org/datathon/)
this past summer in Boston.
For more information visit: http://www.io-informatics.com
CONTACT
Sylvia Vallee
Marketing Manager
T 514-508-2338
E svallee@io-informatics.com
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