Mayo Clinic speeds up cancer research with new data platform

Mayo Clinic just made it easier for researchers to study cancer data from real patients. The medical giant expanded its Orchestrate platform to give scientists quicker access to standardized cancer information from Mayo Clinic and partner hospitals.

The move could speed up the development of new cancer treatments. Right now, creating new therapies takes many years. Better access to patient data might cut down that timeline.

How does it work?

Orchestrate now uses a system called OMOP Oncology to organize messy cancer data into clean, research-ready formats. Think of it as a filing system that puts patient information into standard categories.

The platform pulls together different types of data - lab results, imaging scans, pathology reports - and structures them consistently. Researchers get standardized information about tumor characteristics, biomarkers, cancer stages, treatments, and patient outcomes. All personal identifying information gets removed to protect privacy.

This year, Mayo Clinic will add tokenization technology. This connects anonymous patient information across their entire care journey, giving researchers a complete picture of someone's cancer treatment from start to finish.

Why does it matter?

Cancer research often gets stuck because data exists in different formats across different hospitals. One facility might record treatment information differently than another. Researchers spend huge amounts of time just cleaning and organizing data before they can actually study it.

"The integration of OMOP Oncology into Mayo Clinic Platform has the power to accelerate discovery, improve clinical trial design, and support the development of next-generation therapies for patients worldwide," said Elisabeth Heath, chair of Mayo Clinic's Department of Oncology.

The standardized approach lets scientists analyze larger groups of patients more quickly. They can spot treatment patterns, figure out which therapies work best for specific cancer types, and design better clinical trials.

The context

Mayo Clinic launched Orchestrate in 2025 as part of its broader Platform initiative. The system builds on years of work to create secure data-sharing partnerships between hospitals and research institutions.

The OMOP Oncology model comes from a global effort called OHDSI - a collaboration between researchers worldwide to standardize health data. Mayo Clinic worked with Nemesis Health, a research technology company, to build these new capabilities.

"Orchestrate strengthens Mayo Clinic's commitment to advancing cancer care through data-driven innovation," says Maneesh Goyal, chief operating officer of Mayo Clinic Platform. "By combining trusted data, advanced artificial intelligence and Mayo Clinic's scientific expertise, these capabilities help generate deeper insights, accelerate research and bring new therapies to patients faster."