Resources - COTA Healthcare

Clarity in action

We are determined to bring the full power of data to the collective fight against cancer.

Our Approach

Through our research and partnerships, we are helping to shape the real-world evidence industry and advance the field of oncology.

Our collaborations are leading industry to advance the treatment landscape, reimagine the drug development life cycle, and accelerate value-based care models.

Latest Blog Posts

So you want to train an oncology LLM: Start by getting close to the data

To create targeted LLMs that are suitable for diving into health-related areas like oncology, we must choose our data carefully and get as close to the original source as possible to avoid “playing telephone” with inaccurate information that could affect drug development processes or cancer outcomes.

COTA Wins Google Cloud Customer of the Year Award for using AI to Improve Cancer Care

A panel of senior Google Cloud executives selected COTA from a pool of entries to win *2* Google Cloud Customer Awards. These awards showcase companies from around the world who are using Google Cloud technologies to improve their operations, and their social and governance efforts.

How real-world data is enhancing our understanding of lung cancer recurrence

While the incidence of lung cancer is decreasing over time, and survival rates are on the rise year-over-year, there is still much to learn about how to best treat this disease – and prevent its recurrence after initial therapy.

Latest Podcasts

COTA Joins Aetion CARE Initiative

In this episode of Real World Talk, host Sandy Leonard sits down with Ulka Campbell, Head of Scientific Strategy at Aetion, and CK Wang, Chief Medical Officer at COTA. They dive into the Aetion CARE program, a cross-industry initiative aimed at understanding real-world data’s role in evaluating oncology therapeutics.

Laura Fernandes and Sesh Srinivasan on Constructing Effective ECAs

In this episode of Real World Talk, Sandy Leonard from COTA hosts a thought-provoking discussion with Laura Fernandes, Senior Statistical Director at COTA, and Sesh Srinivasan, Product Management Lead at Deloitte. The conversation revolves around the future of real world data and the exploration of external control arms (ECAs) in drug development.

Using Centralized Real-World Data to Improve Patient Outcomes With Marisa Co and David Anstatt

In the world of clinical trials, having a well-defined research question is key. And that’s where fit-for-purpose data sets come in. But what are the factors for defining research questions? In this episode of the Real World Talk podcast, we get to hear from Seshamalini Srinivasan, Karla Feghali, Mandy Kelly, and Laura Fernandes. They talk about the criteria for defining research questions, the importance of fit-for-purpose data, and the other factors to consider in real-world data sources.

Our Research and Publications

Discover more about how our work with the FDA, industry and academia helps to ensure that everyone touched by cancer is given a clear path to the right care.

ASH 2020: Real-World Treatment Patterns and Outcomes of Patients with Functional High-Risk (Early Relapse) Multiple Myeloma

In collaboration with researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, this retrospective study uses RWD to explore treatment patterns and outcomes of functional high-risk multiple myeloma patients who relapse within 18 months of initial diagnosis.

Tocilizumab among patients with COVID-19 in the intensive care unit: a multicentre observational study

In this retrospective observational cohort study involving 13 hospitals within the Hackensack Meridian Health network (NJ, USA), patients with COVID-19 requiring ICU support who received tocilizumab had reduced mortality. Results of ongoing randomized controlled trials are awaited.

ESMO IO 2019: Cost of Adverse Events (AEs) With Second-line (2L) Immuno-Oncology Agents (IO) and Chemotherapy (CHEMO) in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (aNSCLC) in the Real World

In collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb, COTA investigated the incidence and cost of adverse events among aNSCLC patients treated with 2L immuno-oncology agents as compared to 2L chemotherapy, finding lower cost among patients treated with IO.

An Exploratory Analysis of Real-World End Points for Assessing Outcomes Among Immunotherapy-Treated Patients With Advanced Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer

COTA was one of six organizations to participate in a collaboration to explore the consistency of real-world endpoints across diverse datasets and the potential validity of RWD to support regulatory and payer decision making.

ASCO 2019: Rates of Genotyping for KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, Microsatellite Instability, and Mismatch Repair in Metastatic Colon Cancer Patients: Gaps and Implications.

In collaboration with Guardant Health, COTA investigated the molecular testing rates of patients with metastatic colon cancer and found that <25% of our cohort received guideline recommended genotyping.

ASCO 2019: Real-World Characterization of Advanced/Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients with Rapid Disease Progression

In collaboration with Eli Lilly, COTA characterized patients with non-small cell lung cancer whose disease progresses within <12 weeks of diagnosis, a notable poor prognosis cohort.

Latest Media Coverage

Paying participants isn’t the way to improve clinical trial recruitment

It’s notoriously difficult to recruit people to participate in clinical trials. It’s even harder to ensure that trials are ethnically, racially, and socioeconomically diverse. The idea of paying people to participate has been floated as an option to improve recruitment, but I believe fundamental problems in the clinical trial mechanism need to be addressed before moving in that direction.

The Pace Of Covid-19 Vaccine Development Makes Cancer Research Seem Too Slow, New Study Shows

The speed of Covid-19 vaccine development hasn’t just made some Americans nervous about getting vaccinated. It’s also helped raise consumer expectations about how quickly scientific progress can happen, particularly in cancer care.

COTA’s Miruna Sasu: I left pharma to “turn the spigot on” in the real-world data industry

Miruna Sasu discusses with The Cancer Letter how she plans to leverage the insights learned working in pharma to drive adoption of real-world data and improve care for cancer patients.

Interested in learning more about how we can transform cancer care together?