Translational Research Accelerator

Harnessing big data is not just big. The term also encapsulates multiple varieties of data types and the velocity at which the data is generated. Adding to this complexity, many databases currently do not interface with each other because they are generated by and housed separately in prevention, research and clinical departments vs. a centralized platform. Harnessing big data is transformative because it provides opportunities to ask complex questions and identify new knowledge in existing data through centralization, standardization and new types of computing analytics. MD Anderson’s Translational Research Accelerator (TRA) platform advances this essential goal.

Serving as the nerve center of the adaptive learning environment, the TRA platform consists of two functional components, which are currently being established. The first is the Institutional Longitudinal Patient Disease Registry, which securely houses clinical and molecular data in one centralized location. The second is a suite of massive data analytics that interrogate and learn from the data to provide end users with understandable and actionable answers to their clinical or research questions. One specific analytic is the Natural Language Processing Pipeline, which is used to parse large amounts of unstructured data using rules, logic and reasoners to convert the text of a doctor’s note into structured data that identifies co-morbidities and family cancer histories.

While MD Anderson clinicians are exceptional, decision support provided by the TRA and APOLLO platforms will enable physicians to practice science-based medicine, hence elevating patient care to the next level. Big data backed by powerful analytics and streamlined workflows hold the key to understanding why some patients never respond to treatment, why some patients initially respond and then relapse, and why some patients have long-lasting responses. Such capabilities will enable physicians globally to practice with the MD Anderson standard of care no matter where the patient is located, improving outcomes and reducing suffering worldwide.