Nanostics and Alberta Health Services collaborate to develop new diagnostic tools for urological diseases

• Nanostics and Alberta Health Services (AHS) agreement enables collaboration with AHS data scientists to develop new tools to improve the diagnosis of urological diseases.
• This collaboration will leverage Alberta's comprehensive digital healthcare assets to improve patient care while satisfying all AHS privacy concerns.

EDMONTON, AB, April 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - Nanostics Inc., a precision health company developing diagnostic tests with its ClarityDX^® platform technology, is excited to announce a partnership with Cancer Care Alberta, Alberta Health Services (AHS) to leverage advanced data analytics from Connect Care and the Cancer Care Alberta Data Environment for Cancer Inquiries and Decisions (DECIDe). This agreement will streamline access to Connect Care's powerful and consolidated "one record, one patient, one health clinical information system" to help drive diagnostic and prognostic innovations in urological care in Alberta.

Access to Alberta's clinical information database will greatly boost the progress of an Alberta Innovates funded project, led by Dr. John Lewis, Bird Dogs Chair in Translational Cancer Research at the University of Alberta, in developing new tools for early detection of urological diseases such as bladder cancer. These disease detection tools use both biological and clinical information to accurately determine a patient's risk of having a specific urological disease so the best treatment can be provided.

The agreement outlines AHS' commitment to supporting the project by anonymizing the data, running algorithms on the data internally, and sharing the results with Nanostics' research and development team. In turn, Nanostics' team will utilize the data and results to generate trained machine learning models to improve the diagnosis and prediction of urological diseases such as bladder cancer. The sharing of new intellectual property and revenue derived from the commercialization of any future technologies was also established.

"Alberta's one healthcare system for all has created very valuable health-related data assets that are a great resource for researchers and clinicians looking to improve patient care", said Dr. John Lewis, CEO of Nanostics and Bird Dogs Chair of Translational Oncology at the University of Alberta. "Partnering with AHS provides an opportunity to apply the data towards developing more accurate tools for the early detection of disease, which will lead to better patient outcomes."

"Innovative collaborations such as this have the ability to leverage data to improve patient care and outcomes benefiting patients for years to come.", said Dr. Lorraine Shack, Director, Cancer Advanced Analytics, Cancer Care Alberta, AHS. "As we look to the future of cancer care, providing as much anonymous data as we can only help improve the predictions, diagnosis, and outcomes for cancer patients. That is something we are honoured to be a part of."

Nanostics recently launched the ClarityDX Prostate test at its newly accredited clinical lab in Edmonton, Alberta. This innovative blood test, that uses biological data, clinical information, and machine learning models to generate a risk score for aggressive prostate cancer, marks a significant advancement in prostate cancer screening. It provides critical support to men aged 40 to 75 and their healthcare providers in making more informed decisions, with 3X the accuracy, about whether a biopsy is required following a high prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test result. This project will allow Nanostics to expand its product offerings to other urological diseases.

The Alberta Cancer Foundation is proud of the role philanthropy has played in advancing the innovative and foundational work happening at Nanostics," says Wendy Beauchesne, CEO, Alberta Cancer Foundation. "Congratulations to Dr. Lewis and Cancer Care Alberta on this transformative partnership, which is a reflection of all of our commitments to advancing cancer detection and treatment and making life better for people facing urological cancer."

Nanostics is a private Canadian company that develops and commercializes novel and noninvasive diagnostic tests. Its core technology, ClarityDX^®, uses advanced machine learning algorithms to create a disease risk score. ClarityDX is applicable to a wide range of cancers and other diseases. Nanostics' lead product, ClarityDX Prostate^®, is a test that improves the accuracy of detecting clinically significant prostate cancer. Read more at: www.nanosticsdx.com. Follow Nanostics on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Alberta Health Services is the provincial health authority responsible for planning and delivering health supports and services for more than four million adults and children living in Alberta. Our mission is to provide a patient-focused, quality health system that is accessible and sustainable for all Albertans. Our current focus is on reducing emergency department wait-times, improving EMS response times, increasing access to surgeries, and improving patient flow. For more information, visit: albertahealthservices.ca

Creating more moments for Albertans facing cancer by inspiring our community to give to innovation in detection, treatment and care. Albertans helping Albertans is at the core of everything the Alberta Cancer Foundation does. As the official fundraising partner for every Alberta Health Services cancer centre in Alberta, our very purpose comes from our desire to create more moments for all Albertans facing cancer, no matter where they live or the type of cancer they are facing. the Canmore mountains to the canola fields in Lloydminster, we make life better for Albertans facing cancer by supporting world-class research and patient care, close to home. For more information, visit albertacancer.ca.

SOURCE Nanostics