Privacy-preserving health data solutions
Washington University School of Medicine and BJC HealthCare have joined forces to partner with CuriMeta, a new company that will accelerate lifesaving research in the fight against chronic and acute diseases that impact our communities. Read below to learn more.
What is CuriMeta?
CuriMeta is a new St. Louis-based company that has special expertise in managing “real-world” health data collections. These data collections hold great promise in making research more efficient to develop new diagnostic tools and new treatments for diseases. CuriMeta will develop a secure platform to share de-identified health data with life science companies whose research goals align with those of Washington University School of Medicine and BJC HealthCare, all while protecting patient privacy and confidentiality.
What kind of data will be shared?
CuriMeta will share health data collections that include information about diseases, diagnostic tests, treatments and outcomes, and that are de-identified, meaning that patient names, birthdates, addresses and other identifying information aren’t included.
Why are Washington University School of Medicine and BJC HealthCare launching CuriMeta?
BJC and Washington University have a long history of collaborating to advance research to improve the care delivered to patients. Joining forces to partner with CuriMeta, can accelerate lifesaving research in the fight against acute and chronic diseases that impact the patients. The collaboration with CuriMeta supports research that seeks to predict, prevent and cure a broad variety of diseases.
How could de-identified health data be used to improve health care?
For example, analyzing a collection of de-identified health data from patients with neurodegenerative diseases could help researchers more accurately predict a timeline for symptom progression and aid the design of clinical trials to evaluate investigational treatments. Similarly, studying de-identified data from patients who have experienced heart attacks could help predict who eventually will develop heart failure and identify the best preventive measures.
How is data de-identified to protect patient privacy?
Washington University and BJC will work together with CuriMeta to use state-of-the-art technologies that protect patient privacy and confidentiality. There are multiple and redundant layers of protection to ensure no private information is shared.
How will Washington University and BJC work with CuriMeta?
As part of the collaboration, Washington University, BJC and CuriMeta will jointly select appropriate research projects and collaborators. The collaborations will draw upon WashU Medicine’s expertise in developing state-of-the-art technologies to protect patient privacy. A major emphasis for CuriMeta will be engaging with life science collaborators focused on identifying new insights into cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative diseases and other neurological conditions, as well as rare diseases and childhood illnesses – all clinical strengths at Washington University and BJC.
How could the collaboration with CuriMeta benefit patients?
The collaboration between Washington University, BJC and CuriMeta is aimed at enhancing research to identify new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent disease. The collaboration complements Washington University’s own research efforts – in laboratories and in conducting clinical trials – to bring new diagnostic tools and treatments to patients and ultimately improve their quality of life.
Still have questions? Please contact data-sharing@wustl.edu.