Cardiovascular Research Meets Amazon Cloud: A New Era of Data Sharing in Healthcare

The diagnosis and treatment of heart disease and stroke are increasingly becoming personalized, a shift that necessitates vast amounts of data. The American Heart Association (AHA) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently announced a partnership to establish the AHA Precision Medicine Cloud Platform. This platform provides scientists with powerful data tools to combat cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death worldwide.

“This precision medicine platform will be a game-changer for medical research,” said Eric Peterson, Executive Director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, which manages the world’s largest and longest-standing cardiovascular disease database.

American Heart Association + Amazon Web Services = AHA Precision Medicine Platform

In 2014, the American Heart Association established the Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine. It currently has $30 million in funding to sustain its operations for five years and aims to raise an additional $100 million to support its development. It is also the only institution currently dedicated to advancing “precision medicine” for heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular conditions.

As early as July this year, the American Heart Association (AHA) announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services to invest $5 million in establishing 14 one-year data research grants. These grants cover four areas: data mining technologies, method validation, innovative development, and researcher fellowships, with the aim of expanding the database of the AHA’s Precision Medicine Institute. The AHA Precision Medicine Platform was launched accordingly, offering free access to institutions that have received these research grants. This initiative also serves as a strategic move to attract high-quality partners to the AHA platform.

“Major institutions around the world have begun using the AWS Cloud to enable the public to view and access their data,” said Teresa Carlson, Vice President of Global Public Sector at Amazon Web Services. “AWS leverages specialized cloud technologies to harness powerful computational and analytical capabilities for managing large-scale information ecosystems, such as that of the Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine.”

Utilizing data platforms to deliver precise services to patients with cardiovascular diseases or to prevent such diseases involves the following three steps—

· Step 1: Accumulate a rich and diverse dataset

Amazon Web Services’ cloud platform collects vast amounts of secured health data from diverse sources, including clinical studies, long-term epidemiological research, clinical registries, controlled trials, and wearable devices. Researchers worldwide submit data to the platform, with the fundamental prerequisite that all personally identifiable information is removed.

· Step 2: Obtain solutions from the cloud platform

With the accumulation of vast amounts of data, Amazon Web Services’ tools have essentially provided researchers and clinicians with a vast repository of information, enabling them to rapidly identify new patterns and solutions to address unresolved challenges. For instance, if researchers wish to determine which individuals or populations are at risk for heart disease or likely to exhibit specific treatment responses, they can effortlessly and quickly access extensive research datasets.

· Step 3: Derive the optimal solution to improve the health of millions with new research findings.

Information for the AHA Precision Medicine Platform will be provided by leading medical and research institutions, such as the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, AstraZeneca, and the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Other organizations involved in the platform’s initial development include:

· Sinai Heart Institute, located in Los Angeles, operates 16 cardiac care centers and conducts several research projects on related diseases.

· The Dallas Heart Study, conducted by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, enrolled a study sample of 6,101 adults from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.

· The Heart Institute of Intermountain Healthcare, a nonprofit organization based in Utah, encompasses 22 hospitals and 185 clinics.

· The International Stroke Genetics Consortium, comprising over 200 researchers from more than 50 countries worldwide, is dedicated to investigating the genetic basis of stroke.

Members of the AHA Precision Medicine Platform have reached an agreement stipulating that data providers are obligated to grant access to more detailed and in-depth information beyond the platform when requested by data consumers. The AHA Data Technology Committee will assist in managing all data providers. Researchers can access data on the platform free of charge; however, if they need to utilize the powerful computing capabilities provided by the AWS platform, they will be charged on a pay-as-you-go basis based on consumption. This pricing model is adopted by all platforms worldwide that collaborate with AWS.

All organizations participating in this collaboration are excited about the platform’s immense potential. “The establishment of this platform is indebted to the many patients and researchers who provided assistance,” said Fouzia Laghrissi Thode, Vice President of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases at AstraZeneca. “We also hope to give back to those in the academic and scientific communities who have made significant contributions by opening up our internal information.”

The aggregation, organization, and analysis of large volumes of data can help scientists accelerate research on cardiovascular diseases, elucidate pathogenic mechanisms, identify new therapeutic targets, or discover novel biomarkers for diagnosis and research, thereby enabling promising scientific ideas to achieve breakthroughs more rapidly. All of this serves the ultimate goal of precision medicine in cardiovascular disease: first, to maximize the prevention of cardiovascular diseases; and second, to provide personalized treatment by conducting detailed analyses of patients’ genetic, environmental, and lifestyle information.

Joseph Wu, Director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, expressed his deep appreciation for this cloud-based healthcare platform project, which provides scientists working in relatively isolated environments with limited data-sharing tools the opportunity to access extensive data sources. “This precision medicine platform is like bringing everyone together for a grand party—all the data, tools, and researchers’ insights are now under one roof.”

Users of the platform upload data and access information shared by others. This spirit of sharing, characterized by a willingness to both give and receive, represents the positive energy that the AHA Precision Medicine Platform aims to disseminate among all researchers.

Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association

“We are committed to transforming the way medical research is conducted, and we believe the AHA Precision Medicine Platform will set a new standard for scientific collaboration,” said Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association.