EHR data company nference on Wednesday launched its real-world evidence generation platform and expanded its existing partnership with the Mayo Clinic. 

The platform, dubbed nSights, collects de-identified patient clinical data from academic medical centers, including clinical notes, radiology results, lab tests and electrocardiograms. The company said it will eventually add digital pathology and genomics data as well. nference is pitching the platform as a way for researchers to develop therapeutics and diagnostics using data gleaned from nSights. 

The company is also expanding its 12-year strategic partnership with the Mayo Clinic, offering nference's customers and partners access to Mayo Clinic Platform's de-identified electronic health data. They'll also build a Mayo Clinic-branded version of the nSights platform, called Mayo Clinic Platform_Discover.

"The potential of electronic health data remains locked at medical centers and is frequently under-leveraged due to data complexity, privacy and security concerns," Mike Koenig, chief commercial officer at nference, said in a statement. "Our expanded collaboration with Mayo Clinic Platform provides the framework for nference’s deployment of nSights and enables our customers to access de-identified 'patient-level' data to drive research and development of new therapeutics. I look forward to continuing to build and fortify our partnership with the Mayo Clinic team as we work together to improve healthcare through data-derived insights and knowledge."

THE LARGER TREND

Shortly after nference closed a $60 million Series B round in early 2020, Mayo Clinic announced the startup as its first Clinical Data Analytics Platform partner. Mayo Clinic Ventures participated as a strategic investor in that raise and also joined nference's $60 million Series C round that wrapped up in late 2020.

They have also collaborated on COVID-19 vaccine research and expanded their partnership to include digital pathology and heart rhythm diagnostics. Last year, they formed Anumana with the goal of using nference's AI capabilities and Mayo's medical data to build digital sensor diagnostics, starting with detection of heart disease.

Anumana received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation this spring for its ECG-based AI algorithm aimed at early detection of pulmonary hypertension. It's also partnered with pharma giant Novartis to develop AI tools to detect cardiovascular diseases.