H1 and The Michael J. Fox Foundation team up to fuel Parkinson's research

MJFF will be able to use H1's platform to run more diverse clinical trials

Parkinson's disease has been notoriously been difficult to cure. Nearly one million people in the United States alone, and over six million people worldwide, have it, making it the second-most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's; yet, representation of patients from marginalized racial and ethnic groups in Parkinson disease trials has been low, limiting the the use of therapeutic options. 

H1 is a company that uses data to allows medical affairs and marketing professionals at healthcare organizations, as well as pharmaceutical and biotech companies, identify and connect with the most relevant healthcare professionals in order to facilitate clinical trials and research. And now it will be putting that expertise to work to help fuel Parkinson's research through a partnership with The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) that was announced on Wednesday. 

MJFF has selected H1's Trial Landscape solution, which allows organizations uncover a diverse pool of investigators and sites that have access to the right patient population to run a successful clinical trial based on past performance and future indicators, to improve and transform its education and research initiatives.

H1’s platform represents more than 10 million healthcare providers globally and over 420,000 clinical trials. Through this partnership, MJFF will be able to identify physicians who are treating PD and gaining a deep understanding of their patient populations, who research and clinical trial teams can then partner with, gaining them access to a more representative population. In addition, Trial Landscape will help the Foundation gain insights into underrepresented patient populations.

By partnering with these providers, MJFF says it wants to educate patients on available studies and encourage participation.

“Engaging diverse populations in clinical studies is critical to advancing treatment and care for all those living with PD,” Maggie Kuhl, MJFF Vice President of Research Engagement, said in a statement.

“We know that many study volunteers learn of these opportunities from their treating physician. More information on who is treating people with PD – and especially populations traditionally underrepresented in research – can help us deliver the information and tools that will enable those conversations and lead to greater representation in studies. H1 Trial Landscape is a valuable tool to identify and connect with those providers.”

H1 gets its data from public sources, meaning hospital websites, university websites, and private practice websites, as well as private data, which comes from partnerships the company has with governments around the world, including CMS in the U.S., as well as the governments of Austria, Germany, and France; they allow H1 to pull in information about the types of patients that doctors are seeing.

H1 also purchases data from insurance companies, including Blue Cross Blue Shield and Anthem and, finally, there is community data, in which doctors claim and update their own profiles with their information.

The company now has over 10 million profiles from healthcare professionals representing 16,000 institutions in 70-plus countries. It has over 90 customers as well, including seven of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies, which use the platform to do things like find doctors to work on a clinical trial for a given biotech, or find hospitals where they can perform their trails. 

“We are proud to partner with The Michael J. Fox Foundation in their mission of helping the world better understand Parkinson’s and support patients living with the disease,” Ariel Katz, CEO and co-founder of H1, said in a statement. 

“As a result of our partnership, the Foundation will have access to our extensive global database of healthcare providers and clinical trials to improve how they connect with physicians and patients, and ultimately make strides in one day finding a cure.” 

(Image source: michaeljfox.org)