Published on the OECI Magazine N. 1 – 2021

After almost two years incubation time, early in April 2021 a new Organisation focused on producing cancer real world evidence, came into legal being – the DIGital Institute for Cancer Outcomes REsearch (DIGICORE). Like the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes, DIGICORE is set-up as a European Economic Interest Grouping with 18 prominent cancer centres and 2 cancer networks (UNICANCER and Alleanza Contro Il Cancro) as Members. A strategic partnership with the OECI is part of DIGICORE agenda. DIGICORE’s objectives are to help prepare members for the digital revolution that will transform research through the routine use of electronic health records (EHR) and molecular diagnostic information (MDX) for trial automation, outcomes research, digital diagnostics and care quality management. Two commercial partners have joined this ambitious endeavour: IQVIA, the leading contract research organisation and Illumina, the global leader in DNA sequencing and bioinformatics. These commercial parties have been chosen to ensure medical hypothesis neutrality. We believe this is an important principle and differentiator for DIGICORE when compared to pharma sponsored networks. IQVIA and Illumina also have the size, technology solutions and research experience to help set-up DIGICORE and support cancer centre members across Europe on their journey towards digital outcomes research. This article lays out the scientific rationale and constitution for DIGICORE, the protections set-up for cancer centres that join and the benefits to cancer centres from becoming members or associate members.

Published on the OECI Magazine N. 2 – 2020

Real World Evidence can be a powerful complement to traditional trials that allows the clinical research community to tackle certain important research topics. These vary from outcomes research to establish the true efficacy of treatment on real populations, through to improving evidence around clinical decision making (especially based on clinical biomarkers) to health systems research to optimise entire care pathways or understand the dynamic nature of care – for instance in different cancer care system responses to COVID-19. Making high quality real world research takes effort just like high quality trials. IQVIA (the contract research organisation) with UNICANCER in France, Alleanza Contro il Cancro in Italy, and other cancer centres/institutes already certified by the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI), have been developing a large scale real world research alliance called the “DIGital Institute for Cancer Outcome REsearch” (DIGICORE).