Roche - October 2021 - case study 1

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) and Roche UK have partnered to harness the power of data and artificial intelligence to co-develop digital tools aimed at identifying better ways to care for children and young people with rare and complex diseases.

In 2021, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust (GOSH) and Roche UK established a formal collaboration with the goal of moving closer to personalised healthcare for children through the better use of data that is routinely collected in treatment. Building on GOSH’s position as a leader in digital innovation in the NHS, the partnership is jointly addressing practical data engineering and analysis issues, using cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to improve care at GOSH and beyond.

This unique collaboration also aims to develop a better understanding of how the NHS and pharmaceutical companies can work together to improve the lives of patients. By enabling the automated analysis of anonymised information – such as genomic data, images and text – tools and clinical workflows can be developed to enhance clinical decision-making at scale across the NHS, with the ultimate goal of ensuring patients get the best possible care at each step of their journey, built on learnings from every patient that has been treated before.

To do this, Roche UK is providing funding and staff to work closely with GOSH’s Data Research, Innovation and Virtual Environments Unit (GOSH DRIVE). All projects undertaken within the partnership are conducted within GOSH’s secure digital research infrastructure and no patient data is shared between the organisations or outside of GOSH. Roche also worked closely with GOSH to support their understanding of the ABPI Code and ABPI collaboration guidelines and ensure all outputs of the collaboration are compliant.

Better for patients and the NHS

An AI tool has been developed to extract important genomic information from thousands of genomic reports, something that was never possible before. The tool unlocks multiple new possibilities for improved hospital operations and research by extracting information with 90 per cent accuracy, increasing productivity by 30-fold.

The partnership has also developed a scalable analytics platform for rapid and reproducible research using real-world data, involving five clinical teams. For the first time, GOSH can use real-world evidence from routine electronic health records by using PICTURE, a digital tool that aggregates information such as diagnoses, procedures, lab tests and hospital admissions, to provide data that can help improve patient care, including the efficacy of treatment pathways, counselling about the likely impact of disease, and planning and optimising hospital operations.

GOSH and Roche are incredibly proud that the collaboration has been used as an example of a successful NHS data partnership, which offers positive patient, healthcare system and societal impact, in NHS England’s Guide To Effective NHS Data Partnerships. Over the coming years, the partnership aims to further develop these tools into clinical practice/deployment.

Find out more on the NHS Confederation website.

M-GB-00016040  | February 2024.