Amy Abernethy, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer
Senior Vice President of Oncology
Flatiron Health
As a preface, I work at Flatiron Health (www.flatiron.com). Flatiron is a health technology company focused on fighting cancer through data and technology. We have developed a suite of software products that are of high value to oncologists, and through these software solutions we collect, process and organize cancer data. A whole host of tasks made possible because of access to well-curated high-quality data and insights. With over $138M in investment, we are Google Ventures biggest investment in healthcare to date.
How will health IT and big data reshape health care?
Data is the next huge disruptor in healthcare (or better said, it is the current disruptor, but we haven’t seen what it all means yet). To date, there have been challenges impeding the true potential. Three main problems needed to be solved: overcoming the fragmentation of providers, unearthing key data points buried in unstructured notes, and harmonizing all data to one common language & model. As these are getting solved we unlocking an entire new way of thinking about delivering healthcare and developing novel therapeutics. My key metrics right now are “time to insight” and “how many eureka moments can be uncovered with one data point?”, signals of the pace and robustness of our discovery engine at Flatiron. And these numbers are improving monthly, at a pace that is unheard of. This will change how we optimize health and conduct our science.
What is the most exciting initiative in your organization today, and why?
The most exciting part of being in my company is solving a real problem at scale through serious collaboration. Oncologists, software engineers, statisticians, business folks, etc. all have to come to the table together, as equals, to figure this one out. And we are doing it. This means we have to focus on corporate culture, transparency, honesty with each other, cheerleading, and equal credit.
What does the future of health care services look like to physicians and providers?
As value based care becomes a reality, healthcare organizations are going to need to learn how to operate differently. In response, a huge open area is “clinical transformation” – a service stream whereby health care organizations, doctors’ practices, etc, are coached through the process of realignment of incentives, streamlining processes, and promoting preventative and high touch services over intensive care and procedures. This new industry will require a combination of consultative services, coaching, technology, and data.
Name a health care company you think is doing exciting work, and why?
Besides Flatiron, I would name athenahealth (ATHN; of course I am a bit biased, since I sit on the Board!). ATHN is not afraid to go boldly in directions that other groups only talk about. Take interoperability… While the big box electronic health records (EHR; e.g. Epic) are working hard to make interoperability impossible, ATHN is putting it front and center. Since ATHN’s core mission is better patient care and helping doctors take care of patients, it means that the EHR must be able to present the full patient story, even if this patient didn’t receive all of his/her care in your system – so information has to flow. The More Disruption Please (MDP) program is another bold move from ATHN. Through MDP, ATHN promotes new technology solutions to plug into ATHN’s network, promoting information exchange and facilitating doctors’ access to new solutions; for MDP partners, ATHN acts as a key sales channel. It is a win-win.
Where does the pharmaceutical industry see its greatest opportunity ahead?
21st Century Cures. If this bill passes, it will change the landscape of how we develop drugs in this country (and internationally). This >380pg piece of legislation is too hard to explain here, but, I am happy to discuss it at any time. Wow!
About Dr. Abernethy:
Amy P. Abernethy, MD, PhD is the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Oncology at Flatiron Health, a healthcare technology company focused on organizing the world’s cancer data and making it actionable for providers, patients, researchers and life sciences. At Flatiron, Dr. Abernethy leads the Oncology and Science parts of the organization. She is a hematologist/oncologist and palliative medicine physician, and internationally recognized cancer clinical researcher.
With over 400 publications, Dr. Abernethy is an expert in cancer outcomes research, clinical trials, patient reported outcomes, evaluation of healthcare quality, health services research, clinical informatics and patient-centered care. She is an appointee to the National Academy of Medicine’s (formerly the Institute of Medicine) National Cancer Policy Forum, on the Executive Board for the Personalized Medicine Coalition, and Past President of the American Academy of Hospice & Palliative Medicine.
Before joining Flatiron, Dr. Abernethy was Professor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, and ran the Center for Learning Health Care in the Duke Clinical Research Institute and Duke Cancer Care Research Program in the Duke Cancer Institute. For more than a decade, she has pioneered the development of technology platforms to spur novel advancements in cancer care, including the development of systems by which big data can support tracking cancer care, drug development, personalized medicine and scientific discovery.
Dr. Abernethy went to the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate, and then medical school at Duke, where she also did her Internal Medicine residency, a year as Chief Resident, and her hematology/oncology fellowship. She has her PhD from Flinders University in Australia, focused on evidence-based medicine. She is also on the Board of Directors of athenahealth, Inc.