Throughout cancer treatments, one question that often comes up is, “Is there a clinical trial that I should consider for my treatment?” Since there are tens of thousands of clinical trials throughout the world, it can be difficult to know if a patient is a good fit for a trial or if it will work out logistically. Chris Murphy, Director of Cloud Content at Oracle, wrote an article in Forbes about how AI and chatbots in clinical trials can help patients and doctors can work together to decide if an experimental treatment is the right fit and if a patient is eligible.

The Enter the Opportunity Project

The Enter the Opportunity Project (TOP) is an initiative consisting of a 14-week development sprint that began last fall. In this initiative, software engineers were given swaths of “open” federal data and applied emerging technologies like AI and Cloud computing resources to the analysis. This effort was led by the US Health and Human Services Office of the Chief Technology Officer and the Presidential Innovation Fellows. It included more than a dozen technology providers and nonprofits. The goal was to show agencies why sharing appropriate data with the private sector could drive new insights and tools.

The developers for TOP spent time with patients who were undergoing cancer treatments and with government AI specialists who had a deep understanding of the issues around clinical trials and patient matching. The Oracle team developed a new experience to help patients get matched to a clinical trial that is a good fit for them.

Let a Chatbot Help You Decide

The first step of the experience that Oracle developed is to engage with a chatbot that lets a patient ask questions about his or her cancer treatment. The patient can provide background information through a conversational text or voice interface. The chatbots in clinical trials are available any time, any day.

The second step is for the patient to give permission, via the chatbot, for the application to email the patient’s doctor for additional medical information. This will help gather the detailed data needed to match the patient to a clinical trial. A clinician will be able to enter the data into the application through a guided process. From there, the application will use that information to find clinical trials that the patient could be eligible for.

The final step is for the patient to view the information on a screen, displayed as an interactive map. The map will show where the trial is located relative to the patient’s home. The distance traveled between home and the trial is a major factor in the decision-making process when selecting a trial, especially if the trial requires frequent in-person treatments or checkups. Patients may have to balance the trial with demanding jobs, personal commitments, and the ability to travel based on their health.

Fast-Paced Progress

It’s no secret that fourteen weeks isn’t much time to analyze data and build a complex matching service. However, during this fast-paced project, teams learned that applying the right technology can create a good model for making quick progress. This project was demonstrated at a closed-door event at the White House, and the Oracle team showcased their developments at the annual Oracle Federal Forum last month. The TOP team is exploring how this capability could be leveraged to solve other problems in today’s society, like matching substance abuse patients with available treatment resources.