PIONEER Diagnostic & Prognostic Factor Online Search Tool
Background & Development Process
Multiple biomarkers are available to improve prostate cancer diagnosis and prognosis. However, knowledge on which diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers can be used to select patients for a specific treatment remains unclear. Developed by a multidisciplinary team using a four step approach the PIONEER online search tool for prostate cancer diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers aims to bridge this knowledge gap. For information on the methodology behind the PIONEER search tool read the project’s systematic review in BMJ Open.
What motivates PIONEER researchers
"Diagnosis and prognosis play a vital role in patient management and decision making. The assessment of DPFs is one of the major objectives in clinical research and I was excited to take part in such an important project."
Dr. Michael LardasUrologist Greece & EAU Guidelines Senior Assoicate
"It stood out how quickly we went from first discussions to the first working prototype and further to the final product. We were able to accomplish this due to the close collaboration with everyone involved as well ast he lean setups and tool chains which we developed within DTLab. As for my motivation, I particularly enjoy participating in projects that facilitate collaboration with other external organizations and thus bringing experts from across industry and academia and their insights together."
Dan PlischkeSystem Architect Digital Technologies Lab Bayer
"This project is important for Bayer. It shows Bayer’s engagement to key stakeholders including patients, regulatory agencies and public institutions. It also further demonstrates Bayer’s continuous commitment to prostate cancer patient care. I am fortunate to have the opportunity of working with a brilliant and dedicated Bayer team, Megan, Dan, and Wolfgang together with our WP2 public partner King’s College London, to make this go live."
Dr. Jihong ZongPhysician Epidemiologist RWE Global Medical Affairs Oncology Bayer AG
"DPFs that are capable of significantly improving diagnosis and prognosis in prostate cancer are an unmet need as most of them require additional evaluation in properly designed studies. Developing a tool that helps researchers to understand the quality of the current available studies, motivated me a lot."
Dr. Mieke Van HemelrijckProf. of Cancer Epidemiology Head of TOUR King's College London
"It was a truly cross-functional project where we brought together expertise from very different areas. In my case it is expertise about natural language processing and annotation of digital documents. In Dan’s case it was the programming skills, and other colleagues brought in the medical knowledge etc. Thus, we brought together experts from different fields to have all those components that were necessary to make this work."
Dr. Wolfgang ThielemannHead of Semantic & Knowledge Graph Technologies Bayer AG
"Our knowledge on how to approach and treat prostate cancer changes daily. With the purpose of providing our patients with the best possible information we need tools to keep us up to date. Our DPF tool will provide easy access to validated patient and disease specific factors which can be implemented for each patient individually to provide better patient-centered care."
Dr. Lisa MorrisUrology Resident & EAU Guidelines Office Senior Associate
