Last week, BC Platforms, an MIT Whitehead project spinoff which specialises in powerful genomic data management and analysis solutions, announced that it will be providing its genomics platform to Bumrungrad International Hospital, a private multiple-specialty medical centre founded 1980 in Bangkok, Thailand.

WHY IT MATTERS

BC Platforms will be providing its customisable end-to-end Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform to enable Bumrungrad to offer personalised healthcare solutions for their patients in the clinic. The core system will be seamlessly integrated in the hospital infrastructure from laboratory to electronic patient records.

To support advanced patient care, the ability to handle all types of genetic data from Genotyping and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) instruments into clinical reporting is essential. Bumrungrad will also participate in providing its extensive Asian data and samples to BCRQUEST, providing additional sample diversity and data resources for researchers. BCRQUEST is a global network of healthcare service providers and biobanks that provide genomic and clinical cohort data for pharmaceutical and medical research and development.

THE LARGER TREND

Precision medicine, of which genomics is a subset of, was a key topic addressed at the recently concluded HIMSS19 Precision Medicine Summit. At the event, Dr. John Halamka, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, said that precision medicine, at its core, is "the right care in the right setting from the right provider at the right time."

Data – structured, complete, well-governed and easy to see – will be key to precision medicine becoming more widespread and Dr. Halamka added that on the precision medicine journey, having the data accessible is going to be hugely important. He also pointed out that besides technology, there are also other challenges such as "interesting politics and policy issues that are part of the precision medicine journey.”

While precision medicine offers huge promises, policy, technology, clinical processes and patient engagement need to evolve to make it a reality for primary care.

ON THE RECORD

“We are excited to be partnering with BC Platforms to bring personalized healthcare solutions into our clinical practice and research. We are looking forward to working with BC Platforms to set a new standard for predictive medicine complementing conventional treatment for our patients and clients across the globe,” said Artirat Charukitpipat, Chief Executive Officer at Bumrungrad.

Tero Silvola, CEO of BC Platforms, said, “We are pleased that Bumrungrad has chosen to adopt our genomics platform for their clinical practice and to benefit research. We aim to build comprehensive collaboration programs with Bumrungrad to facilitate projects where patients will benefit from the latest innovations and thereafter gain access to clinical trials relevant to their individual disease status. Bumrungrad is one of the largest healthcare providers in South East Asia and by contributing their data mainly focusing on Asian haplotypes to BCRQUEST we can greatly improve the diversity of our offering to research organisations worldwide.”