Researcher Tapping EMR Patient Data
Perlegen Sciences Inc. has reached an agreement with an undisclosed EMR provider that will grant the Mountain View, Calif.-based research organization exclusive access to the medical records of 4 million patients.
The goal of the collaboration is to identify and develop genetic markers to help predict how patients are likely to respond to specific medical treatments, according to the company.
Perlegen and its partner will mine data from the EMR’s information warehouse to enable the identification of subsets of patient records which meet inclusion and exclusion criteria. Working via each patient’s individual care provider, Perlegen will seek to obtain DNA from these patients to help physicians address medical situations in which genetically based predictions about treatment response may help improve patient care, says the company.