The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) announces the launch of the neuroMuscular ObserVational Research (MOVR) Visualization and Reporting Platform (VRP) as a way to help advance neuromuscular disease research and improve patient care.
MDA partnered with DNAnexus, a cloud-based SaaS company serving the life science community, to use the power of its MOVR Data Hub and develop the MOVR VRP to advance drug discovery and development, according to a news release.
“MDA has doubled down on efforts to ensure those able to directly impact the lives of people living with neuromuscular disease have state-of-the-art tools to share data and accelerate research and treatment progress.
“We are grateful to the MOVR participants who have agreed to make their data available for this purpose, and MDA Care Center staff, who have worked tirelessly to populate MOVR. The MOVR database, combined with the visualization and analysis platform from DNAnexus, allows us to make the most of this data in a way that really brings it to life to aid in developing new therapeutics.”
— MDA’s President & CEO, Lynn O’Connor Vos
MDA partnered with DNAnexus to transform raw MOVR data and incorporate it into the MOVR VRP where MDA Care Center clinicians and researchers can analyze and visualize data across multiple Care Center sites in order to better understand disease progression and compare outcomes across therapeutic categories.
The security, compliance and collaboration components of the platform will make MOVR data increasingly accessible to the wider neuromuscular clinical and research communities. Targeted efforts will include training, fulfilling data requests, reviewing publications, encouraging peer-to-peer collaboration and publishing, as well as sharing learnings across multiple channels to drive awareness.
MOVR data now complies with privacy and HIPAA regulations and conforms with the FDA-required format for observational clinical studies.
“From my experience with the MOVR VRP, I can say that the interface is very intuitive and customizable.
“Now that it is going live, this innovative platform will prove an invaluable tool for MDA Care Center clinicians and researchers across the country to visualize all sites’ aggregate data, and assist tremendously in our making therapeutic decisions and structuring clinical trials.”
— Jeffrey M. Statland, MD, assistant professor of neurology and director of the MDA Care Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center, who beta tested the new platform
In addition to helping improve clinical care, the MOVR VRP allows for in-depth analysis of clinical parameters across large cohorts of neuromuscular patients. This will enable correlative analyses that may stimulate new drug, biologics and gene therapy discoveries. Exploration of these deeply curated neuromuscular disease cohorts in the MOVR VRP also enables clinical researchers to rapidly identify populations that meet specific clinical criteria, develop and refine hypotheses, and collaborate on clinical trial designs, the release continues.
“Extracting value from the data first requires a comprehensive data harmonization and ingestion strategy. DNAnexus has a successful track record in ingesting valuable datasets from UK Biobank, City of Hope, and now MOVR, working with a multitude of common data models such as OMOP, CDISC, and other data schemas to support each customer’s unique use case.
“MDA understands the importance of collaboration in fueling scientific advancements and is leading the development of new approaches to revolutionize the way neuromuscular disease research is practiced. We are proud to serve as the technology platform bringing together MDA researchers and their partners to advance cures for this collection of neuromuscular diseases.”
— Richard Daly, CEO at DNAnexus
[Source(s): Muscular Dystrophy Association, PR Newswire]
Related Content:
Muscular Dystrophy Association Awards 15 Neuromuscular Disease Research Grants
Is This a Treatment Path for Muscular Dystrophy?
Invitae and MDA Partner to Offer Free Genetic Testing for Muscular Dystrophy
