Pharmaceutical company delivers an MVP for a precision medicine solution
Application overhaul provides physicians with easy access to oncology treatment data
This US-based wholesale pharmaceutical company is committed to delivering products, business solutions and value-driving services that improve access to care, including oncology.
The success of different cancer treatment regimens is highly idiosyncratic and depends on the interaction of many genetic factors. Oncologists need a better way to access and analyze clinical data on a growing number of therapies so they can identify treatment plans with the best chance at success.
This company offered a customer application that delivered highly recommended cancer regimens based on genetic markers — but poor execution of that app was proving to be a hindrance. To transform that application, the company partnered with NTT DATA and leveraged its intelligent solutions expertise.
Business Needs
The pharmaceutical company had worked on a potential solution: a precision medicine application that would scan cancer treatment regimens and recommend those that have been most successful for patients based on their highly specific genetic markers.
This was possible because the app could utilize an enormous quantity of clinical data that they had access to as a large drug distributor.
But despite the solution’s promise, the development team had been facing a number of challenges with the architectural and engineering aspects of developing and integrating the new platform.
Outcomes
- Delivers a working solution within an aggressive timeline
- Integrates with multiple applications across departments
- Expects to enter the general availability phase shortly
Under NTT DATA’s leadership, the reorganized development team was able to deliver the solution well within the company's timeline with overwhelming physician support for the beta product.
Solution
When NTT DATA arrived on the scene, 18 months had elapsed since the project launched — halfway through the company’s mandated deadline for bringing innovation initiatives to market.
While NTT DATA was initially brought in to support the solution architecture, it quickly became apparent that more expertise — and product leadership — was required. The development team was restructured to address the project’s shortcomings, and the reorganized team was able to:
- Build an analytic engine that matches queries to patient records for 127 different genomic markers
- Create an intuitive user interface that integrates with other applications used by physician teams, including a chemotherapy dosing database and several lab company ordering platforms
- Ensure secure communication and handling of sensitive health records, including creating, updating, and deleting as needed
- Perform user testing and clinical validation of treatment plans
This solution was delivered well within the company's timeline with overwhelming physician support for the beta product — and it’s now poised to move on to the general availability phase.
About the case study
A leading pharmaceutical company rebuilds application platform to deliver an MVP for a precision medicine solution.