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AiCure Launches Open Science Framework to Advance Digital Biomarker Development at CNS Summit 2020

  • The open-source platform, OpenDBM, encourages scientific collaboration to validate digital biomarker algorithms and improve understanding of disease symptomatology
  • At CNS Summit 2020, AiCure to join Merck and Kent State University to discuss growing importance of validating digital biomarker approaches for neurological conditions

New York, N.Y. AiCure, an AI and advanced data analytics company focused on improving clinical trials, today introduced OpenDBM, an open-source version of its computer vision and AI-powered digital biomarker platform, at CNS Summit 2020. The platform’s transparent framework will give the scientific community access to AiCure’s digital biomarker algorithms and the ability to apply them to their own datasets to measure patient responses to treatment, including facial, vocal and motor characteristics. By breaking down barriers to proprietary technology, AiCure aims to encourage scientific scrutiny and collaboration to not only advance the development of digital biomarkers for remote assessment, but also improve the understanding of disease and patient behavior.

Scientifically validated digital biomarkers hold great promise to enhance a clinical trial’s objectivity, sensitivity and frequency of assessment. Despite this potential, this method of measuring patient behavior is often shrouded in mystery, as proprietary machine learning models are typically not accessible to scientists to independently evaluate. At CNS Summit 2020, AiCure will join Merck and Kent State University to discuss the industry need to democratize access to these algorithms to enhance their validity and deepen the pool of clinical data available to interpret study findings.

Unleashing Digital Biomarkers’ Potential

AiCure’s digital biomarker platform gathers and analyzes visual and auditory cues directly through a patient’s smartphone camera, pinpointing critical disease characteristics and behavioral trends. Through accurate and consistent data capture, the platform helps to ensure the integrity of clinical trial data throughout a study’s duration. By expanding access to these algorithms, AiCure will empower the pharmaceutical industry and scientific community to improve their understanding of disease symptomology, drug dosing side effects, and stratified disease variations.

“While digital biomarkers help to eliminate the blind spots of infrequent and subjective in-person visits, their exclusivity means many in the scientific community are still flying blind when it comes to measuring the impact and validity of these proprietary algorithms, limiting their use and the weight they carry during regulatory conversations,” said Ed Ikeguchi, CEO of AiCure. “AiCure’s OpenDBM opens this black box. Through an open science framework, we hope to unleash the potential of digital biomarkers to not only safeguard the success of a trial and understanding of a drug’s impact, but also better equip sites to offer each patient the support they need.”

AiCure at CNS Summit 2020

On Friday, October 30th, 4:00-4:45pm ET, as part of the virtual 2020 CNS Summit, AiCure will join Bryan Hansen from Merck and John Gunstad from Kent State University in a session to discuss the need and emergent approaches to evaluate, standardize and validate digital biomarker methodologies. The details of the session are as follows:

  • Anzar Abbas, Director of Research & Development, & Isaac Galatzer-Levy, Chief Scientific Officer at AiCure will discuss the launch of OpenDBM and its implications for the future of scientific collaboration.
  • Bryan Hansen, Associate Principal Scientist, Global Digital Analytics & Technologies at Merck will discuss his work to evaluate, validate, and recommend digital biomarker approaches to advance clinical trial research.
  • John Gunstad, Professor of Psychological Sciences and Associate Director of the Brain Health Research at Kent State University will discuss the application of computer vision and vocal digital biomarkers in his funded research into prodromal symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease.

“Identifying subtle symptoms in a complex disease such as Alzheimer’s is critical to our understanding of its progression and the impact of treatment,” said John Gunstad at Kent State University. “Advanced digital biomarker methodologies such as AiCure’s have the potential to detect slight changes in cognitive ability that can be difficult to pinpoint in some clinical settings. The expansion and validation of these emerging approaches to measuring neurological disease could revolutionize the detection and monitoring of symptoms in neurological conditions.”

To learn more about the presentation and register for the event, visit the link here.