Verily launches Baseline Health consortium to develop clinical research solutions

The new Project Baseline initiative consists of Verily, Duke University Health System, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, Regional Health in South Dakota and University of Pittsburgh.

As part of the collaboration, clinical research will be made more accessible.

The consortium partners will embark on a pilot this year in a bid to evaluate existing research programmes, and make use of tools and technology developed through Project Baseline, including the Baseline Platform for conducting studies.

They will also help Verily iterate on its technology to bridge the gap between research and care and further precision medicine.

Verily former FDA commissioner and advisor Robert Califf said: “The clinical research system fails to provide the evidence that patients and clinicians need to make good health and healthcare decisions.

“By developing useful tools and approaches, this robust collaboration has the potential to drive more efficient and effective research as we link patients, advocacy groups, clinicians, health systems and researchers.”

Project Baseline was launched by Verily in 2017 to transform clinical research through improved real-world evidence generation and by making more people and clinicians involve through accessible and engaging studies.

Its first initiative was the longitudinal observational Project Baseline Health Study in partnership with Duke University School of Medicine, Stanford Medicine, Google and the American Heart Association.

The study was aimed at collecting, organising and analysing broad phenotypic health data from a diverse cohort of participants over several years.