Leverage synthetic data to propel personalized medicine to new heights: Launching SYNTHIA, a pioneering public-private partnership funded by the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI)

The SYNTHIA project, a groundbreaking public-private partnership funded by the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), is set to revolutionize the field of personalized medicine by harnessing the power of synthetic data. As the first IHI synthetic data project to tackle the critical need for privacy-preserving data solutions in healthcare, SYNTHIA aims to propel research and innovation to new heights, ensuring that patients receive the best possible care while safeguarding their personal information.

  • SYNTHIA: Synthetic data generation framework for integrated validation of use cases and AI healthcare applications.
  • Focus: Solid tumors, blood cancers, neurodegenerative disease, metabolic disease.
  • Consortium partners: 32.

Unlocking new possibilities in health research

Synthetic data, which are artificially generated to mimic real patient data, present a solution to many of the challenges faced in health research today. These data allow researchers to overcome the limitations of access to high-quality, real-world datasets and address growing concerns about patient privacy. However, questions have lingered about the quality and applicability of synthetic datasets, especially in diverse and complex scenarios. SYNTHIA is addressing these challenges head-on by developing validated tools and methods for synthetic data generation (SDG) across various data types, including laboratory results, clinical notes, genomics and imaging. By focusing on six specific diseases the project will demonstrate the utility of synthetic data in advancing personalized medicine:

  • Two solid tumors: Lung cancer, Breast cancer;
  • Two blood cancers: Multiple myeloma, Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma;
  • Alzheimer’s disease;
  • Type 2 diabetes.

 

SYNTHIA Academic Lead
Guillermo Sanz
Health Research Institute La Fe

 “In the era of precision medicine, with drugs targeting specific gene mutations, new tools are required to deal with patient's data privacy. Whole genome sequencing, digital imaging, and electronic health record data are the ID of any individual person. All of them are required to being able to provide the patient with the best available treatment. Nevertheless, personal data privacy is a must.

Generation of efficient synthetic databases by using artificial intelligence is the unique way to pursue the goals of maintaining data privacy while offering the tools to advance in precision medicine. The SYNTHIA project, a new pioneering public-private partnership, is the first IHI synthetic data project to deal with this urgent need.

SYNTHIA envisions to generate databases that could be used by the European Medicines Agency to authorize the design of new single arm clinical trials to be used for the approval of more efficient new drugs. That will undoubtedly accelerate patients' access to them and, in return, reduce the cost of those therapies. That is the aim SYNTHIA is committed to for the benefit of the EU society. The Health Research Institute La Fe, IISLaFe, is proud to coordinate the IHI SYNTHIA project”.

Fostering trust through innovation

A key component of the SYNTHIA project is its dedicated federated platform, which will serve as a central resource for the research community. This platform will provide synthetic data generation workflows tailored to specific needs, along with robust frameworks to assess data privacy, quality, and applicability. Each dataset will be clearly labelled with its suitability for various research applications, building trust among stakeholders and promoting the responsible use of synthetic data.

Collaborative efforts driving success

The SYNTHIA consortium partners from Medtech, Pharma, Academia, Medical research and Healthcare institutions are committed to advancing the use of synthetic data in healthcare. The project’s outputs will be made accessible to researchers worldwide, fostering a collaborative environment where innovation can thrive.

 

SYNTHIA Industry Lead
Gopal Avinash
GE Healthcare

 “Leveraging AI and data integration technologies is vital to tackle the rapidly increasing volume of patient data. Yet healthcare data remains complex and requires careful annotation to be used in research and product development. Synthetic data has huge potential to enhance research and product development in healthcare by augmenting available data.

Along with GE HealthCare’s AI strategy, synthetic data can help mitigate bias and drifts in algorithms and reduce privacy risks. Synthetic data can also help speed up the development of robust and generalizable AI models in the healthcare industry. We are excited to explore and develop these methods while enhancing data standards and guidelines to build safe and effective synthetic data-based models with our expert collaborators within SYNTHIA.”

SYNTHIA is a multidisciplinary collaboration of 32 consortium partners - SDG developers, FAIR data experts, clinical researchers, developers of therapies and data-based tools, legal experts, socio-economic analysts, regulatory, policy advocacy, and communication experts - that will provide a 360º vision on how to advance healthcare applications through SD use. SYNTHIA invites researchers, healthcare providers, and innovators to join in pioneering a new era of healthcare research. With synthetic data as a catalyst, SYNTHIA is ready to accelerate discoveries in medicine, making personalized healthcare more accessible and effective for all.