Big Data solution for HIV/AIDS tested in British Columbia

VANCOUVER – The British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV /AIDS at St. Paul’s Hospital is pioneering new technology from PHEMI Health Systems and SAP AG to accelerate the treatment and improve the outcome for patients diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. The Centre intends to roll out powerful Big Data technology in a pilot project to deliver personalized medicine based on the genetic signature of the virus that infects each patient.

“We’re changing the face of treatment for HIV and AIDS,” said Dr. Julio Montaner (pictured), director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. “This technology will be invaluable to the lives of our patients.

He added, “We will be able to quickly treat patients by delivering personalized medicine based on their unique strain of the virus. This will help us save time and money while also significantly decreasing the number of new HIV and AIDS cases. For the first time, we shall have access to vast amounts of information and get answers immediately thanks to technology from PHEMI and SAP.”

The Centre for Excellence aims to implement PHEMI Central’s healthcare data warehouse and the SAP HANA platform. PHEMI Central will be used to store, archive and govern the research and clinical information in a healthcare-specific data warehouse that is embedded with ‘Privacy by Design’ capabilities. The solutions from PHEMI and SAP are envisioned to be used together, delivering advanced, personalized and private medicine information.

“Over 70 percent of healthcare information is unstructured and difficult to mine for relevant insight using traditional methods,” said Dr. Paul Terry, CEO of PHEMI Health Systems. “What we intend to offer healthcare professionals, essentially, is the ability to turn physician letters and lab results into searchable information, thereby helping to unlock vast amounts of new information for clinicians, analysts and researchers.”

“Our cooperation with PHEMI and the work we do with the Centre for Excellence is a great proof point highlighting that forward-thinking Canadian companies, taking bold actions, can lead the world in their industries,” said Bob Elliott, managing director, SAP Canada. “Doctors and researchers are envisioned to have a much faster way of treating patients. Working together, we plan on lowering healthcare costs by speeding up treatment plans, improving patient care and addressing chronic disease as a whole.”

The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) is Canada’s largest HIV/AIDS research, treatment and education facility and is internationally recognized as an innovative world leader in combating HIV/AIDS and related diseases.

About PHEMI

PHEMI Health Systems is a process automation and Big Data platform company that unlocks patient data to improve clinic productivity, patient outcomes, and medical research. The PHEMI team architected PHEMI Clinical and PHEMI Central from the ground up specifically for healthcare to fully incorporate the seven foundational principles of Privacy by Design as applied to Big Data. For more information, please visit http://www.phemi.com.

About SAP

As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 253,500 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.