How $21M Could Help Oncology Analytics Improve Data Science for Healthcare

^{Oncology Analytics aims to optimize cancer treatments through data analytics.}

Oncology Analytics has raised $21 million in its effort to improve how healthcare uses data, analytics and digital health technologies to optimize and personalize cancer treatments.

The company, founded a decade ago, earned the funding in an oversubscribed Series B round led by Oak HC/FT and with participation from McKesson Ventures, Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Partners and Sandbox Advantage Fund. The move placed healthcare influencers and Oak HC/FT partners Annie Lamont and Ezekiel J. “Zeke” Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., on Oncology Anaytics’ board of directors.

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“This strategically chosen team recognizes the need for a paradigm shift in the use of data, analytics and evidence-based medicine to dramatically impact patient access and options for cancer treatment,” Oncology Analytics CEO Rick Dean said in a statement. “We are honored to partner with this dynamic group of healthcare investors with a proven track record of success.”

Oncology Analytics — which uses evidence-based medicine and analytics to improve utilization management for health plans, providers and patients — plans to use the funding to increase its oncology benefits management abilities and boost investments in data analytics, digital health and data science.

The company said it “provides the critical missing link” for insurers to manage the total cost of cancer care, using analytics, data and oncology pharmacists and physicians to improve patient outcomes.

“With no end in sight to the rising costs and complexity of cancer treatment options, the oncology benefits management industry is in desperate need of both innovation and disruption,” Lamont, who’s managing partner at Oak HC/FT, said in a statement. “Oncology Analytics has the strategy, leadership team and passion to improve the delivery of cancer care.”

The oncology landscape is indeed challenging, to say the least. Global spending on cancer drugs is expected to break $147 billion by 2021, with treatments that are often complicated and expensive.

Meanwhile, Emanuel noted, patients with cancer find it challenging to obtain the best possible treatments because of general overuse of the U.S. healthcare system. But there is a better path forward: precision medicine.

“Improved outcomes are possible when treatment options are tailored to a patient’s specific cancer genetic profile,” Emanuel said in a statement. “Getting the best treatment to patients is at the heart of Oncology Analytics’ strategy and is deeply alignred to the future of cancer care.”

Physicians use Oncology Analytics’ technologies to help more than 3.5 million patients in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The company’s chief platform includes more than 6,000 cancer treatment guidelines.

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