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Real-World Evidence in the Cloud: How
Technology is Revealing the Big Picture in Pharma
2
T
he collection and analysis of data generated
outside of restricted clinical trials are
now cr it ic a l to phar ma comp anies.
Data gathered in the routine deliver y
of healthcare can be mined to uncover insights into
treatment efficacies and outcomes in the real world.
Such insights, known as real-world evidence (RWE),
benefits teams working across the drug lifecycle by
showing how larger, heterogeneous patient populations
interact with the healthcare system and respond to
medicines.
Until recently, pharma companies and other healthcare
stakeholders had access to a limited range of real-
world data. Outside of formalized clinical trials,
companies were only able to collect basic observational
research data by monitoring billing codes submitted
to healthcare payers, or from registry studies, giving
them a limited picture of how their products were
used in practice and their effect on patients.
These data sources are now just a few parts of a
much broader tapestry. Today, companies can pull
in longitudinal patient information from electronic
medical records (EMRs), genomic studies, social
media, wearables and other sources of real-world
data to build a more detailed, robust understanding
of the use and value of their products.
RWE is now a key resource for every step in the life
cycle from drug discovery to commercialization.
This new normal grew out of the simultaneous
expansion of the breadth and depth of datasets,
growing focus on value—in some cases by tying
payments to outcomes—and need to make processes
across the drug lifecycle faster and more efficient.
The AWS Cloud is facilitating RWE by making it
easier for pharma companies to ingest vast datasets
from a range of sources, and by providing analytical
tools, including artificial intelligence capabilities, to