How Big Data Can Help You & the Lung Cancer Community: Part 3

Peer Medical officially kicked off in 2016. However, the concept came to Spiegel about 10 years ago when he was a primary caregiver for his father, who was battling lung cancer.

“It was really frustrating to sit across from the oncologist and wonder which drug to take, what do we do and how does this whole thing play out. A year after my dad passed away, I encountered someone I went to college with. Their father had been through the same thing with the same doctors maybe two years before my dad. It was almost identical in some of the decisions and how the process went. I would have appreciated knowing that while I was going through that with my dad. It’s even more complex now, with so many new targeted therapy drugs.

Peer Medical is about sharing information

“Conceptually, this company came from my own personal struggle facing these issues. It’s about sharing information and having everybody on the same page. Having talked with so many survivors, I am convinced this is the right product. It’s just a matter of getting everyone to participate.

“In the short term, it is a tool to help people make better decisions about what drugs to take, as they can see what other people have done. In the longer term, it is a data repository where patients and researchers can look at trends and understand what’s happening.

“It’s not just the core cancer drug we’re learning about. We’re also learning about side effects and what drugs people are taking to treat them. Things like Magic Mouthwash, which is very popular with people taking chemo drugs. It’s going to uncover a lot of interesting information and hopefully, give people a playbook.

How big data can serve the community

“Our initial focus is completely on lung cancer. We’re looking for any lung cancer patient. Lung cancer patients are underserved in a lot of ways, including financially, from the amount of assets allocated towards research and other ways.”

A robust lung cancer patient database will help patients understand what to expect on their journey.

“Everything is authenticated and verified through hospitals -- hard copy medical records, electronic health records, and the individual patient,” says Spiegel. Those are the three mechanisms we use.”

Patients who donate medical records to Peer Medical may also donate their records to other databases, such as CancerLinQ. Also, patients who sign up to share their medical records with Peer Medical may change their minds and rescind those rights at any time.

Looking at health data in a new light

Peer Medical does not replace associations and groups of patients who anecdotally share their information. “This is different from Facebook groups or other tools that are more anecdotal,” says Spiegel. “This is a data-driven approach. The reason it hasn’t existed before is that these electronic health records, which again are a critical component of our data gathering, really didn’t exist 10 or 15 years ago. This is something new that is going to be very helpful.”