Mining Data to Aid in Rare Disease Research and Improve Quality of Care - Dr. Michael Mbagwu, Senior Medical Director at Verana Health

One challenge in developing treatments for rare diseases is finding enough people with the condition to mount valid clinical trials.  Databases that contain diagnostic codes for specific conditions can help, but those miss people who may have the condition but have yet to be conclusively diagnosed.  That’s where Verana Health comes in, a digital health company that uses AI to mine its data network of more than 20,000 healthcare providers and the clinic notes they make about patient encounters. “If you wanted to find somebody with a specific genetic defect, or a specific condition for which a diagnostic code doesn't even exist, clinic notes represent really the only place you could discover that information,” explains Dr. Michael Mbagwu, an ophthalmologist and Verana’s Senior Medical Director. Verana partners with the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Academy of Neurology and the American Urologic Association to manage their clinical registries which were built to improve quality of care, answer research questions and help physicians report quality metrics. Join host Michael Carrese for an exploration of the ways medicine is being changed by the ever-growing amount of data available and the new technologies which allow clinicians and others to analyze and use all of that information. “Some of the things that we just assumed were never possible or were kind of hopeless endeavors are now possible for the first time thanks to AI.” 

Mentioned in this episode: https://www.veranahealth.com/

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