CHOP receives $10 million grant for project that uses clinical data analysis to combat rare diseases

The Center for Data Driven Discovery in Biomedicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia received a $10 million federal grant for the development of Real-time Analysis and Discovery in Integrated And Networked Technologies.

Founded in 2016, D3B focuses on developing tools to combat pediatric cancers and rare diseases by collecting, analyzing, and visualizing clinical data of patients. The grant was awarded by The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, a federal agency that works to support the development of solutions to health problems. 

The subject of the grant is a project called RADIANT — Real-time Analysis and Discovery in Integrated And Networked Technologies. It collects and integrates data from electronic health records, genomic information, and medical imaging in real time. 

By providing real-time access to comprehensive patient data, RADIANT is intended to help doctors make informed decisions about treatment options and the possibility for clinical trials. According to the news release, this is particularly important for rare diseases where doctors may have limited experience.

“D3B has been able to consistently accelerate discoveries in pediatric cancer, thanks to our focus on big data and the collaborative researchers around the world who utilize our platforms,” Phillip Storm, Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery and co-director of the Neuroscience Center at CHOP and co-executive director of D3B, said in the news release. “This award takes the advancements we’ve made in the field of pediatric brain tumors and expands them in exciting new directions,”

D3B is the third ARPA-H awardee from Philadelphia, joining projects led by two other Penn faculty members. Previously, Penn Medicine Associate Professor David Fajgenbaum received a $48 million grant in February for the use of AI in repurposing treatments, and Zisman Family Professor Rajeev Alur received a $7 million grant in August for his research in the use of AI in medical treatment.

One problem that D3B aims to address through the use of RADIANT is the need for placebo-controlled trials in pediatric clinical studies. Conventionally, when conducting clinical trials, one group of patients is given a treatment and one group of patients is given a placebo, allowing researchers to accurately understand the effects of the drugs.

By comparing data from a clinical trial to data already present in the RADIANT database, the tool could eliminate the need to find a large group of patients or even run placebo-controlled trials. 

“We need to standardize and advance multiple data workflows across institutions in ways that create a unified, real-time view of a patient,” CTBN Co-Executive Chair Sabine Mueller said. “It’s only through advancing new models of care empowered by these technologies that as clinicians we’ll be able to enhance options for our patients and their participation in clinical trials.”