Verana Health —a digital health company elevating quality in real-world data—today announced the launch of Urology Qdata™. Urology Qdata for life sciences companies will be featured at this year’s American Urological Association (AUA) annual meeting alongside Verana Health’s solutions for urologists, including Verana Trial Connect for physicians interested in participating in clinical trials. The annual meeting is taking place in New Orleans, Friday, May 13 to Monday, May 16.
Urology Qdata comprises quality, disease-specific, de-identified datasets to help power urologic research and shape therapeutic strategies. The data stems from Verana Health’s exclusive partnership with the AUA to curate, de-identify, and analyze electronic health record (EHR) data from the AUA Quality Registry (AQUA), which includes 8 years of longitudinal data from more than 2,100 healthcare providers and nearly 10 million patients. Verana Health transforms data from this network of urologists into quality real-world data (RWD) through its VeraQ™ population health data engine. VeraQ uses clinician-led artificial intelligence (AI) approaches, such as machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP), to bring meaning to structured and unstructured data at scale.
Qdata™ Prostate Cancer, the first urology module to launch, is a high-quality, real-world dataset comprising an extensive cohort of patients with prostate cancer. It is reflective of the patient journey, which is gleaned from urologists’ de-identified EHR data and linked with claims data for more than 100,000 patients. Following the release of Qdata Prostate Cancer, Verana Health expects to release additional Urology Qdata modules for urologic diseases including non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), overactive bladder, and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).
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“Prostate cancer is the second-most common type of cancer in men and results in the deaths of approximately 29,000 Americans each year,” said Michael T. Sheppard, CPA, CAE, American Urological Association CEO and Verana Health board member. “Early detection is critical for improving the prognosis and reducing the mortality of patients with prostate cancer. Qdata Prostate Cancer could help inform earlier disease detection and guide better risk stratification for patients with organ-confined prostate cancer, helping to drive prostate cancer research—and ultimately care—forward.”
Prostate cancer occurs when a tumor forms in a man’s prostate, a gland beneath the bladder that produces seminal fluid, usually in the mid-to-late stage of life. A combination of genetic factors, including inherited and acquired mutations, and environmental factors, such as diet, contribute to the disease. Organ-confined prostate cancer is localized to the prostate and has not spread to other parts of the body. Early detection—often through urologic care—can help reduce the likelihood of the disease progressing into metastatic prostate cancer, where the disease has spread beyond the prostate.
“Primary measures used to identify prostate cancer severity and progression, such as Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) levels and Gleason Scores, are frequently documented in free-form physician notes within urologists’ EHRs, presenting challenges for researchers and clinicians in accessing this vital information in a structured, standardized manner,” said Jennifer Bepple, MD, board-certified urologist and Verana Health clinical advisor. “Qdata Prostate Cancer applies physician-guided algorithms to extract critical information from unstructured data, giving researchers unprecedented insights into the journey of patients with prostate cancer, which could help inform the standard of care for patients.”
Qdata Prostate Cancer gives RWE researchers unique insight into prostate cancer disease progression by opening up access to primary measures. Additionally, it provides an earlier view into the prostate cancer journey by offering a better understanding of treatment decisions when the disease is organ confined. To guide this, the curated data module includes key variables, such as PSA level, Gleason score, TNM (tumor, node, metastasis) staging, active surveillance status, testosterone level, and more.
“With Qdata Prostate Cancer, life sciences companies gain a valuable source of real-world evidence into the prostate cancer journey that can accelerate various stages of therapeutic development, including comparative effectiveness research, clinical trial site selection, and post-approval evidence generation,” said Sujay Jadhav, CEO of Verana Health. “Patients with prostate cancer benefit when researchers develop a better understanding of treatment decisions, patterns, and outcomes—throughout the patient journey—and we hope that Qdata Prostate Cancer helps to advance insights to improve the quality of care.”
Verana Health at the 2022 American Urological Association Annual Meeting
Verana Health will be exhibiting at AUA 2022 (Booth #2529), promoting Qdata Prostate Cancer and showcasing its Verana Trial Connect platform, which is available to interested AQUA Registry participants. Verana Trial Connect supports registry-powered clinical trials for investigators who conduct research at trial sites. Additionally, the technology supports physicians who would like to refer their patients to trials.
Shrujal Baxi, MD, Verana Health senior vice president of clinical and scientific solutions, will deliver in-booth presentations on AQUA data at 12 p.m. CT daily from May 13 to 15. Additionally, Kari Goodman, PhD, Verana Health clinical trials product manager, will deliver presentations on Verana Health’s clinical trial offerings at 12:15 p.m. CT on the same dates.