The Athena Breast Health Network was founded by Dr Laura Esserman at the University of California. Applying Silicon Valley principles around rapid iteration the network is a community of clinicians from across the University brought together to test, learn and refine thinking on breast cancer.
Not all cancers are the same and not all patients are the same. Esserman wanted to launch a huge 5-year study involving 100,000 women to find better ways to detect and prevent breast cancer.
The research study was focused on whether a personalized approach to screening could be as effective as current screening programs involving annual mammograms for women over 40.
The study necessitated the recruitment and tracking of 100,000 women aged 40 to 74 as well as the collection, recording and analysis of vast quantities of data around each one. In 2015 UC Health launched the 5-year, 100,000-woman Wisdom Study with Salesforce App Cloud.
App Cloud was used to:
- Build a recruitment platform
- Recruit participants
- Record individual medical histories in real-time to build a profile of each participant
- Record other insights
- Report back to practitioners
The Wisdom Study was founded on the principle of precision medicine, where a personalized treatment plan is developed around an individual’s genetics, lifestyle and environment as well as the biological differences in cancers and the performance of actions taken.
Through App Cloud:
- Automation made a trial involving 100,000 women possible
- The Athena Network team could reach each one in a personalized way
- articipants could be profiled and tracked over time
- Academic groups could work with a much larger data set than was previously possible
Since choosing Salesforce as their technology partner in 2010 the Athena Network:
- Has moved closer to its goal of precision medicine– achieving individually tailored treatment plans rather than applying a blanket approach to breast cancer
- Can collect, analyze and make improvements based on the wealth of data they have
- Integrate the latest understanding in breast cancer biology and risk into screening and prevention programs
This is a new approach to innovation through iterative problem-solving and learning in medical research.
