COTA, Inc. — an oncology real-world data and analytics company — and Miami Cancer Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida, announced today they are expanding their real-world data (RWD) and analytics partnership. Miami Cancer Institute will use COTA’s Real-World Analytics platform (RWA) to better understand how certain patient demographics, such as zip code, ethnicity, or other socio-economic factors, contribute to unwanted disparities in patient outcomes.

With this expanded partnership, Miami Cancer Institute will take concrete steps to address one of the most pervasive issues in healthcare: disparities in health outcomes perpetuated by uneven access to services. Curated real-world data — including de-identified electronic health records and claims data — will be used to reveal the scope of unwanted disparities in care patterns and patient outcomes across the Institute’s patient population. Now in its sixth year of operations, like other major cancer centers, the Institute is turning its attention to existing healthcare disparities in its community by forming a Division of Health Care Equity.

“With our expanded partnership, we’ll be collaborating with COTA on research that analyzes the impact a patient’s demographics may have on the stage of their cancer diagnosis,” said Leonard Kalman, MD, Executive Deputy Medical Director and Chief Medical Officer at Miami Cancer Institute. “Delayed cancer diagnosis for a patient frequently leads to poorer outcomes. Our hope is that this collaborative research will identify the patients who are most at-risk for delayed diagnosis so we can increase education and expand access to routine cancer screenings and treatment for these populations.”

To date, COTA has partnered with Miami Cancer Institute to implement standardized, evidence-based approaches to care that lead to improved patient outcomes. Recently, COTA’s RWA was used by physicians to better understand BRCA testing patterns at Miami Cancer Institute between 2018 and 2019. This analysis led the Cancer Institute to implement blanket BRCA mutation testing for all patients with newly diagnosed metastatic breast cancer in an effort to identify all patients — and by extension their family members — who could be at increased risk of harboring the mutation.

“All patients deserve access to the right care, at the right time — regardless of where they live or what job they have,” said C.K. Wang, Chief Medical Officer at COTA, Inc. “We’ve been honored to work with Miami Cancer Institute since 2018. This expanded collaboration is a meaningful step in their broader mission to take focused action aimed at ensuring greater equity in cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment.”

About Miami Cancer Institute

Miami Cancer Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida, brings to South Florida access to personalized clinical treatments and comprehensive support services delivered with unparalleled compassion. No other cancer program in the region has the combination of cancer-fighting expertise and advanced technology—including the first proton therapy center in South Florida, Latin America and the Caribbean, and one of the only radiation oncology programs in the world with each of the newest radiation therapies in one place—to diagnose and deliver precise cancer treatments that achieve the best outcomes and improve the lives of cancer patients. The Institute offers an impressive roster of established community oncologists and renowned experts, many recruited from the nation’s top cancer centers.  As Florida’s only member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer (MSK) Alliance, Miami Cancer Institute is part of a meaningful clinical collaboration that affords patients in South Florida access to innovative treatments and ensures that the standards of care are developed by their multidisciplinary disease management teams match those at MSK.

About COTA, Inc.

Founded by oncologists, COTA is committed to creating a precise, patient-first approach to cancer care through the use of real-world data. The company leverages technology-supported human data abstraction methods to make sense of complex, fragmented patient data from the real world. Offering the highest quality oncology real-world data from leading academic and community-based cancer centers and an advanced analytics platform, COTA partners with leading life sciences companies, providers, and payers to ensure that everyone touched by cancer has a clear path to the right care. To learn more about COTA and how to fast-track improvements in cancer care and treatment with comprehensive and diverse real-world data and analytics, visit Cotahealthcare.com.