Oncoshot has just entered into a collaboration agreement with Omico, the Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Centre. The respective parties were represented at the event yesterday by Dr Huren Sivaraj, CEO and co-founder of Oncoshot, and Prof David Thomas, CEO of Omico and head of Genomic Cancer Medicine at the Garvan Institute. The event was witnessed by guests-of-honour Dr Shanny Dyer, CEO of ARCS Australia, and Dr Xiaowei Shi VP, Head of APAC clinical operations at BeiGene.

As one of the first of its kind in Australia, this collaboration between Omico and Oncoshot is regarded as a potential reference model for the rest of the Australian healthcare landscape when it comes to data sharing between private and public healthcare stakeholders. As Omico is one of Australia's leading cancer research networks, this partnership will create opportunities for global trial sponsors to leverage real-time aggregated patient insights with biomarker data and present Omico and its network of hospitals as preferred site partners within the region.

"Omico is excited to establish this partnership with Oncoshot that will enable Australian cancer patients greater access to the latest cancer drugs via global clinical trials. Cancer drug development has entered a new era, based around rational drug design against molecular targets," says Prof Thomas. "Personalised treatment appears more effective than the old one-size-fits-all approach. Omico believes that clinical trials represent a critical option for our patients, especially when standard treatments fail."

Despite its importance for population health planning, basic and clinical research and health industry utilisation, access to health data remains problematic. The ability to securely engage in health information exchange can reinforce the integration and cooperation between public and private healthcare stakeholders to allow both sides to reach healthcare goals together. Furthermore, extending this data sharing with the research circle can provide insights into strategies to better the effectiveness and efficiency of health services while evaluating the influence of new health policies and interventions.

Oncoshot's federated data system was designed to satisfy these needs, and at the same time, observe data protection regulations that ensure data is shared safely and securely. Unlike legacy models requiring data transfer to third parties, federated networks allow data to be visited, meaning queries and algorithms can be sent to and implemented on the often pseudonymized data. Specifically for healthcare, federated health data networks can facilitate access to sensitive health data and have the potential to allow large cohort analysis across healthcare institutions, regional, and national borders.