BlackBerry and NantHealth, a cloud-based information technology provider combining science and big data to transform healthcare, today announced the first secure clinical genome browser that gives doctors unprecedented access to patients’ genetic data on the BlackBerry Passport smartphone – the NantOmics Cancer Genome Browser.
Press release:
Waterloo, ON and Culver City, CA – BlackBerry Limited (NASDAQ: BBRY; TSX: BB), a global leader in mobile communications, and NantHealth, a cloud-based information technology provider combining science and big data to transform healthcare, today announced the first secure clinical genome browser that gives doctors unprecedented access to patients’ genetic data on the BlackBerry® Passport smartphone – the NantOmics Cancer Genome Browser™.
The NantOmics Cancer Genome Browser platform on the BlackBerry Passport enables deep, interactive reporting on genomics data for physicians and other treatment providers in clinical settings – for example, giving oncologists a powerful view into the individual genetic alternations that make each patient’s disease unique and highlighting relevant treatment options. The BlackBerry Passport’s large high resolution screen enables clinicians to view a patient’s chromosome at an individual base-pair level. It is the first in a series of innovative offerings being developed jointly by BlackBerry and NantHealth for use by healthcare professionals.
“BlackBerry’s partnership with NantHealth illustrates how the mobile security and collaboration technology we are known for can be reimagined to create revolutionary applications across a variety of industries,” said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO, BlackBerry. “BlackBerry technology has proven itself secure, reliable and powerful enough to be counted on in life-and-death situations. Its innovative form and functionality make BlackBerry Passport an ideal addition to a doctor’s medical kit.”
“The proprietary NantOmics Cancer Genome Browser enables clinicians for the first time to investigate a tumor genome from the full three billion bases down to the single-base level in real-time, thanks to the power of the NantOmics supercomputing infrastructure,” said Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., founder and CEO of NantHealth. “This integrates with NantHealth’s treatment recommendation engine, Eviti, to personalize treatment protocols to individual patients based on their genomic signature.”
Powered by BlackBerry’s mobile security infrastructure, the NantOmics Cancer Genome Browser is fully encrypted to allow deployment in a HIPAA-secured environment, enabling clinicians to securely access patient data as soon as it’s available, wherever they are. BlackBerry’s recently launched BES12 cross-platform EMM solution will enable hospital IT administrators to easily deploy the application to a clinician’s BlackBerry Passport smartphone and ensures that the application data is fully secure end-to-end.
“BlackBerry already powers many of the diagnostic machines clinicians rely heavily upon so it makes sense to tie those devices directly to a BlackBerry smartphone,” said Soon-Shiong. “NantHealth has quietly built the unique capability of placing a super-computer into the doctor’s hand at point of care and in time of need. Now with BlackBerry’s partnership and through the power of the cloud and secure networks, the reality is we are now able to put dozens of supercomputers, through mobile devices, into doctor’s hands on a global basis. Our goal is to extend this unique capability from doctor to patient, thereby establishing patient empowered 21st century health.”
The NantOmics Cancer Genome Browser will be demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January and will be preloaded on some BlackBerry Passport devices and available to the professional community in early 2015.