A radiation confederation

Varian and Oncora partner to accelerate precision medicine in radiation oncology

Mel J. Yeates
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PALO ALTO, Calif. and PHILADELPHIA—Varian, Inc., a company which focuses on radiotherapy and radiosurgery in oncology, has announced that it is investing in Oncora Medical, Inc. Varian will be partnering with Oncora to accelerate the development of software tools to enable precision medicine in radiation oncology.
 
Oncora is a privately-held digital health company which uses software and data to equip doctors and scientists with analytics tools to develop optimal cancer treatment plans for each patient. Oncora Patient Care, the company’s documentation, workflow and decision support solution, was developed in conjunction with oncologists at MD Anderson Cancer Center. It helps capture critical data about cancer patients, their treatments and their clinical outcomes so that doctors can learn from past experience to improve care for patients.
 
“Oncora’s mission is to improve outcomes for cancer patients by developing intuitive software tools to better collect and learn from real world data. We look forward to partnering with Varian to develop and deploy innovative new tools in the fight against cancer,” said David Lindsay, Oncora co-founder and chief executive officer.
 
Oncora’s predictive modeling engine encodes this knowledge in computational models that can accurately predict the outcomes of new patients’ treatments. Varian and Oncora plan to use these predictive models to help doctors design treatments for patients that minimize their risk of toxicity and maximize their chance for cure.
 
Oncora Analytics, the company’s research engine, aggregates longitudinal data on prior patients and makes this real-world data available to power scientific and medical research. The software is in use at 13 sites of care across the United States.
 
“We envision a world where all patients have access to the highest quality cancer care regardless of their location,” added Corey Zankowski, senior vice president of Varian Oncology Software Solutions. “Oncora Medical's ability to aggregate vast amounts of patient data is designed to empower oncologists with a decision support tool to achieve the goal of elevating the standard of care across the country.”
 
Varian also announced yesterday that the company will report their results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019 after market close on Wednesday, October 23, 2019.  The news release will be followed by a teleconference available to all interested parties at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time. There will also be a live webcast, with replays available.
 
In August, Varian announced that Phil Febbo, M.D., chief medical officer (CMO) at Illumina, has been appointed to the Varian board of directors.
 
“We are proud to have Phil Febbo join the Varian Board,” R. Andrew Eckert, chairman of Varian’s board of directors, noted in a press release. “Phil has a strong background in both clinical and research work, as well as company strategy. He will be another valuable member of the Varian Board as the company continues its transformation into the leader in intelligent cancer care.”
 
“It is an exciting time to join the Varian Board, as the company expands beyond its traditional radiotherapy focus and puts the patient and clinician at the center of its thinking to deliver intelligent cancer care,” noted Febbo. “I look forward to joining the Board and being a part of the company’s vision of creating a world without fear of cancer.”

Mel J. Yeates

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