Firm Joins Program for Learning Ecosystems Accelerator for Patient-Centered, Sustainable Innovation (LEAPS) Project to Use Data to Improve the Lives of Patients
CAMBRIDGE, MA April 30, 2020 – W2O, the leading independent provider of analytics-driven, digital-first marketing communications to the healthcare sector, joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) New Drug Development Paradigms (NEWDIGS) initiative as the first Pioneer Site for its Learning Ecosystems Accelerator for Patient-Centered, Sustainable Innovation (LEAPS) Project.
W2O joins NEWDIGS’ expanding and diverse community of global collaborators, which includes biopharmaceutical developers, patient advocates, care providers, regulators, payers, health technology assessment bodies, and other health care stakeholders, to advance sustainable, patient-centered biomedical innovation.
“This collaboration is a natural extension of W2O’s mission to make the world a healthier place through marketing communications,” said Kevin Johnson, W2O’s Group President & Managing Partner, Integrated Marketing Intelligence and Solutions. “Working with MIT as the first Pioneer Site for its LEAPS project, we can apply our analytics-driven approach to help uncover insights that will ultimately improve the lives of patients through smarter decisions about the use of therapeutics.”
As a Pioneer Site, W2O will help to advance the LEAPS community’s understanding of patterns of variability in the response of patients to different therapeutic products throughout the course of their disease. A deeper understanding of such “patient journeys”, when combined with genomic markers, may be a critical link in the roadmap to precision medicine for Rheumatoid Arthritis and other chronic diseases.
W2O will partner with MIT’s Center for Biomedical Innovation for the initial rollout of the Real World Discovery Platform (RWDP) of the NEWDIGS LEAPS Project. The RWDP is the first of two core real world evidence (RWE) generation platforms designed through a structured, multi-stakeholder collaboration process. The RWDP marries human expertise with artificial intelligence and machine learning, and applies it via a virtual infrastructure to diverse, distributed, retrospective real world data sets to discover insights that strengthen decisions about use of therapeutics.
This partnership marks a watershed moment in the implementation of the RWDP – the launch of the LEAPS Pioneer Network. This new distributed innovation environment, guided by NEWDIGS’ commitment to open-source development and dissemination of methods, tools, and insights, fuels collective impact from collaborator organizations (“Pioneer Sites”) by producing actionable RWE to improve patient-centered decisions and outcomes for a target disease. The LEAPS Pioneer Network enables participants to unlock the value and scale of big data without the risk of patient-level data sharing.
“We are delighted to welcome W2O as a partner and collaborator,” said Gigi Hirsch, MD, executive director of NEWDIGS. “The firm’s cutting-edge social media data and analytics will enrich insights about patient journeys gleaned from more conventional data sources. Further, W2O’s expert knowledge and experience in health care provides a powerful advantage to this important initiative.”
About W2O
Founded by Jim Weiss in 2001, W2O is the leading independent provider of analytics-driven, digital-first marketing services and communications to the healthcare sector. W2O applies proprietary analytics models, methodologies and approaches in a digital world to design precise communications and marketing strategies to deliver sustained business results. The firm employs nearly 1,300 people in 18 offices across the United States and in Europe, and partners with a growing roster of Fortune 500 organizations, including 23 of the top 25 pharmaceutical companies. For more information about W2O, visit www.w2ogroup.com.
About NEWDIGS
The NEW Drug Development ParadIGmS(NEWDIGS)Initiative at MIT is an international “think and do tank” dedicated to delivering more value faster to patients, in ways that work for all stakeholders. NEWDIGS designs, evaluates and initiates advancements that are too complex and cross-cutting to be addressed by a single organization or market sector. Its members include global leaders from patient advocacy, payer organizations, biopharmaceutical companies, regulatory agencies, clinical care, academic research and investment firms. For more information, visit http://newdigs.mit.edu.
About LEAPS
The LEAPS Project (Learning Ecosystems Accelerator for Patient-centered, Sustainable innovation) is advancing the mission of the MIT NEWDIGS consortium—to deliver more value from biomedical innovation faster to patients, in ways that work for all stakeholders—through a new collaborative systems approach to the planning, generation, and use of evidence across R&D and healthcare delivery. A model system for Rheumatoid Arthritis is now being piloted in Massachusetts and will catalyze related efforts in other diseases and geographies. Success in LEAPS targets better patient outcomes while also reducing waste and inefficiency across the system.
W2O Contact
Peter Duckler
pduckler@w2ogroup.com
MIT NEWDIGS Contact
Azrina Azhar
Operations Manager
azrina@mit.edu