Highlands Oncology (Highlands) (www.highlandsoncology.com) is the leading community-based cancer center in northwest Arkansas, providing comprehensive care for nearly 30 years across six state-of-the-art facilities. Highlands conducts more than 100 clinical trials at any given time and is the only community-based cancer center capable of offering phase I clinical trials in the state of Arkansas, in addition to phase II and III clinical trials across all cancer types.
Highlands is a premier destination for cancer patients seeking access to novel therapeutics, with an impeccable reputation for clinical trial execution. Highlands provides its patients with access to clinical research as a care option equivalent to leading academic medical centers and comprehensive cancer centers who are recognized for advancing cancer care for patients around the world.
Northwest Arkansas is a diverse region with a high proportion (18%, vs. U.S. health service area median of 8%) of Hispanic/Latino cancer patients, who are historically underrepresented in clinical trials. This diverse population, Highlands’ excellence in care delivery, and the availability of certified interpreters within the research department have all contributed to successful clinical trial engagement with the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, enabling Highlands to provide access to cutting edge therapeutics to rural Arkansans.
“Northwest Arkansas is a wonderful place to live, work and raise a family, however, there are tremendous geographical barriers to participation in university-based clinical research programs in the region. Highlands is dedicated to providing the highest quality of cancer care as well as fulfilling the need for patient access to clinical trials in our community.”
J. Thaddeus Beck, MD, FACP
Co-Founder and Medical Director of Research
Highlands Oncology
Highlands partnered with Paradigm Health, Inc. (Paradigm) to improve the efficiency of its clinical research program by addressing the following goals:
Reduce Administrative Burden
The research department was inundated with clinical trial opportunities and required technology, automation, and data analytics to accelerate the evaluation of clinical trial opportunities that would maximize the impact for Highlands’ patient population and clinical research portfolio.
Scale Patient Recruitment Operations
All patients receiving care at Highlands are screened for potential clinical trial participation. Despite investment in a market-leading oncology EMR system and partnership with numerous molecular testing vendors, patient screening was very manual and time-consuming requiring the use of multiple disparate tools, inhibiting the impact of the research team.
Highlands integrated Paradigm’s Platform and clinical services into its clinical research program to reduce administrative burden and scale patient recruitment operations. The Paradigm solution included the following capabilities:
Feasibility - Highlands is now able to quickly evaluate new clinical trial opportunities to verify alignment of the protocol inclusion and exclusion criteria with the local patient population that could be eligible for the clinical trial across a comprehensive range of clinical characteristics as well as fit for Highlands’ capabilities, research portfolio, interests and objectives.
Study Sourcing - Highlands now receives new phase I, II, and III, interventional therapeutic clinical trial opportunities through Paradigm from pharmaceutical and biotechnology sponsors that are pre-qualified and aligned with Highlands' local patient population, capabilities, research portfolio, interests and objectives.
Patient Recruitment - Highlands is now able to identify and screen patients systematically with unified access to EMR and molecular testing data, improving efficiency and ensuring that all patients have the chance to be considered for all clinical trials in the research portfolio.
Paradigm’s Platform integrated patient clinical data from Highlands’ EMR and test results from all five of Highlands’ molecular testing vendors into the Paradigm Platform. Expert-validated Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) processes were deployed to further enrich patient records with data derived from unstructured text from clinical notes and pathology reports to improve the completeness and accuracy of the data (e.g., comorbidities, histology, staging, biomarkers). This robust, integrated data is then utilized to find all eligible patients that could benefit from clinical trial participation.
Paradigm staff conducted process alignment conversations with Highlands’ research team and key stakeholders as part of onboarding to develop a joint understanding of and document the current state of research workflows, identify bottlenecks impacting Highlands’ staff, and to co-develop the optimal state clinical workflow, best practices, and milestones of success. This comprehensive understanding of the Highlands research environment ensured that a successful Paradigm deployment, embedded in Highlands’ operational research workflows, would effectively reduce burden, increase efficiency, and improve the experience for all parties involved. Highlands has also served as an invaluable partner to Paradigm, helping guide solution development, best practices, and innovation for the benefit of all healthcare providers participating in Paradigm’s Network.
“The pharmaceutical industry presents several hundred new clinical trial opportunities to Highlands every year. The Paradigm Platform equips our research department to quickly evaluate the potential fit of these trial opportunities as well as the impact these novel therapeutics could have on our patients. Ultimately, our goal is to bring the best possible treatment options to the patients in our community.”
Adam Torres, BSBA, BSN, RN, CCRP
Director of Research Development
Highlands Oncology
The Paradigm Platform improved precision and reduced the amount of time required from Highlands’ research department to conduct feasibility analyses for hundreds of clinical trials annually. The research department improved the efficiency of patient screening utilizing Paradigm’s automated precision matching of eligible patients to Highlands' clinical trial portfolio. Highlands is now able to quickly and accurately match eligible patients by genetic mutation, replacing a manual process reliant on estimation. All patients under care at Highlands are now able to be considered for clinical research as a care option alongside the best available standard of care throughout their treatment journey.
“Highlands increased clinical trial patient enrollment by 45% over the last two years, while also reducing the burden on the research department,” continued Adam Torres. “These accomplishments were achieved through the deployment of industry leading best practices, technology, and automations, including Paradigm, who has served as an invaluable partner for our research program.”
Cancer patients in northwest Arkansas are encouraged to learn more about clinical research as a care option at Highlands by visiting: highlandsoncology.com/clinical-trials