Flatiron Health announces collaboration with Sanofi to streamline clinical trials with automated real-world data capture

Flatiron Health and Sanofi to collaborate across multiple oncology studies, deploying Flatiron Clinical Pipe to automate real-world data capture to streamline clinical trials for patients, sites and sponsors.  

On 1 May 2023, healthcare technology company Flatiron Health issued a press release announcing a large-scale new collaboration with global biopharmaceutical company Sanofi. The partnership will deploy Flatiron Clinical Pipe™, Flatiron Health’s direct electronic data transfer system, to streamline an array of oncology clinical trials by automating capture and management of real-world electronic health record (EHR) data, to the benefit of all stakeholders.  

Flatiron Clinical Pipe is a site-facing technology that digitally transfers data captured in EHRs directly into the electronic data capture (EDC) system — one of the industry’s first scalable EHR-to-EDC technologies. The improved data transfer efficiency using the EHR-to-EDC technology enables faster access to cleaner data with less burden for both sites and sponsors.  

The collaboration will make it easier for sites to participate in oncology trials by reducing redundant manual, and often error-prone, data entry processes. Reduced time spent on both high-volume manual data entry and downstream data resolution issues will mean trial sites have more time to spend with patients. As a result of deploying Flatiron Clinical Pipe, Flatiron expects the number of queries to decrease by ~50%, adding to efficiency gains for both sites and Sanofi study teams. 

“Flatiron’s expansion into the clinical research space is a natural progression for us,” commented Alex Deyle, General Manager, Clinical Research, Flatiron Health. “With the FDA’s guidance on interoperable technology that allows electronic transmission of relevant EHR data to the EDC system, we knew we had an opportunity with Flatiron Clinical Pipe to unlock the potential of data captured in the EHR, reduce the burden of clinical trials, and accelerate research time timelines. We are incredibly excited to collaborate and partner with forward-thinkers like Sanofi, who share our aspiration to leverage data and technology to transform clinical research. We look forward to working with the industry to solve a variety of challenges in the clinical research space — for the benefit of sponsors, CROs (contract research organizations), sites and, ultimately, the patients.” 

The Sanofi study initial trial use of Flatiron’s technology performed its first automated data push earlier this year, successfully transferring over 50% of study data from the EHR to the EDC. Sanofi and Flatiron will collaborate on data standards and mapping to expand the volume and types of data eligible for automated transfer.  

This redesign of the clinical trial experience will be applied across a portfolio of trials and a broad network of research sites, including both academic and community cancer centers. The collaboration between Flatiron Health and Sanofi has the potential to accelerate the development of new cancer therapies by making clinical trials more efficient and reducing the time and cost required to bring new drugs to market.