Three Finnish Hospital District owned biobanks and healthcare data and analytics company BC Platforms (BCP) have announce a multi-year contract that will see BCP automated the management of phenotypic, genomic, and clinical data. The deal comes as Finland begins to leverage data housed in its biobanks across the country and establish itself as a leader in real-world data (RWD) used by pharmaceutical companies and diagnostic developers around the world.
“This is good news for developing the Finnish healthcare system and its research capabilities. Consented sample and patient information enables an integrated and automated operating model under Finnish Biobank Act and GDPR, said Sanna Siltanen, director Finnish Clinical Biobank Tampere (FCBT), one of the three biobanks included in the deal. “We believe our good quality longitudinal geno-pheno data samples will attract research interest globally. Our partnership with BC Platforms provides us with unique, sophisticated, software tools that significantly reduce the resource needed to administer the data in our Biobank, enabling more focus on making Finland a leading country for Biobank-studies.”
In addition to FCBT, the project includes the Biobank Borealis of Northern Finland (which includes Lapland) and the Central Finland Biobank in Jyväskylä. All three of the biobanks are a part of the FinnGen project and have been in operation since 2015. The three biobanks have health data from roughly 2 million Finnish citizens, which accounts for about one-third of the country’s total population.
The partnership was orchestrated by one of Finland’s leading Information, Health, and Wellness Technology companies, Istekki Oy, which is owned by hospital districts and the public sector. It acts as a system integrator and project office for the deployment of new technologies.
“We are pleased to play a part in improving our biobank customers’ data management and collaborate in fruitful co-operation with BC Platforms. We’re looking forward to the upcoming years ensuring that customer expectations are met and even exceeded,” said Kirsi Kauhanen, service manager of Istekki. “Our key objective is to ensure our customers have safe and reliable environment to work and excel in their core area.”
Tools and software that will be deployed by BCP as part of the agreement include BC|CORE, a participant, identifier registry and consent management and data collection system; BC|SAMPLE, a sample management system for sample registration and management; and BC|INSIGHT a holistic data management application for biobank reporting and for managing user authorization and data changes.
“We’re delighted to announce another partnership with these prestigious Finnish biobanks and thank Istekki for making it happen,” said Tero Silvola, CEO of BCP. “In Finland, where we have our R&D center, the genetic heritage of the population has significant value in providing clinical insights into the causation and treatment of many diseases. We see this partnership opening new strategic health data driven high impact opportunities for biobanks and the science community.”
