Cambridge, Massachusetts-based GNS Healthcare, which has developed an analytics tool for precision medicine and population health, raised $10 million from Celgene Corporation, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, and Gi Global Health Fund. Existing investors Cambia Health Solutions, Heritage Provider Network, and Mitsui USA, the US subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsui & Co, also participated. This brings the company's total funding to at least $33 million.

GNS has developed a machine learning and simulation platform, called REFS (Reverse Engineering and Forward Simulation), that collects patient data, including information from electronic medical records, connected health devices, medical and pharmacy claims, genomics, and consumer behavior. The company uses this data to identify what health interventions and drugs would be best suited for individual patients. This would in turn help healthcare organizations improve outcomes and lower costs related to preterm birth, medication adherence, metabolic syndrome, comparative effectiveness in diabetes, specialty care, oncology and more.

“Machine learning can reveal cause-and-effect relationships in data, not just patterns and correlations, making it possible – and practical – to predict many future 'what if' scenarios, to compare outcomes across different treatments, patient by patient, and ultimately use that knowledge to optimize treatment decisions,” GNS CEO and cofounder Colin Hill said in a statement.

GNS also recently announced preliminary results from a partnership with the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) to find treatments for multiple myeloma.The companies used GNS' REFS offering on a dataset that included clinical and genomic data for nearly 800 patients that was collected over eight years.

In October 2013, Hill presented a project GNS was working on in partnership with Aetna. GNS's pilot used claims data and biometric screenings to do predictive analysis on patients at risk for metabolic syndrome or pre-diabetes.