Resources & Articles

Medical Affairs & the Real World: How PicnicHealth's model is providing a unified view of patient care and simplifying observational research

AI is changing how biopharma companies clean, organize, structure, and abstract information at a much faster speed and greater scale than a person or team of people ever could. We can now gather and curate data more efficiently and complete manual, tedious tasks easier to unlock new insights.

Today, PicnicHealth, a company dedicated to simplifying observational research, announces the appointment of Jennifer Stacey as Chief Delivery Officer. In this role, Stacey will oversee the end-to-end delivery of observational studies conducted on the PicnicHealth platform to accelerate customer success and drive innovation in the healthcare industry.

Earlier this year, the FDA published a guidance document titled “Real-World Evidence: Considerations Regarding Non-Interventional Studies for Drug and Biological Products”, that provides study design and analysis recommendations to sponsors looking to use real-world data (RWD) in observational research. This guidance, which emphasizes the potential for real-world evidence (RWE) to meet regulatory standards for evidence generation, underscores the FDA's recognition of RWE as a valuable component in drug and biological product evaluation.

Today, PicnicHealth announces PicnicAI, the groundbreaking technology that unlocks the Unified Patient Record. PicnicAI collects medical records from everywhere in the U.S. and transforms them into meaningful data for patients and researchers. It is powered by a proprietary, industry-leading LLM that outperforms GPT-4 and healthcare industry-specific models in accuracy, efficiency, and cost on tasks that involve structuring or understanding medical records. ‍

PicnicHealth’s AI strategy is focused on building personal medical AI that helps patients get better care and, through our research-focused products, eventually better therapeutic options. To do this, our approach to large language model (LLM) development introduces a distinctive dimension – we bring generalized medical knowledge together with a detailed understanding of a patient’s own medical journey by interpreting their records.

Real-world medical records quickly break common assumptions used to develop AI techniques in academic settings, and it’s these real-world issues that make our job difficult and interesting. They’re also the reason that “pretty good on a benchmark” has never translated into a great solution for the tasks we train on.

This week PicnicHealth unveiled PicnicAI, an AI-driven platform designed to rapidly unlock unified medical records and deliver accurate insights for patients and life science companies.

Recruitment is essential for generating data on drug efficacy, which is crucial for the approval of new medical treatments. Clinical trial success hinges on the ability to recruit a sufficient and appropriate number of participants.

PicnicHealth is simplifying observational research by combining a direct-to-patient approach, industry-leading AI and technology, and world-class clinical expertise to capture the patient experience in an unprecedented level of detail.

As stakeholders increasingly seek more robust evidence from registries and observational studies, researchers must adopt innovative methods for generating data. Previously restricted by outdated study models, evidence generation can now be more efficient and flexible through the use of cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence. New technology-driven methods frees life science companies from historical constraints, enabling a deeper understanding of the course of disease, drug effectiveness, safety, and quality of life (QoL).

As the life sciences landscape continues to evolve rapidly, the ability to conduct highly efficient yet deeply insightful and reliable research is crucial. PicnicHealth Pulse is specifically designed to address the shortcomings of traditional observational study approaches

PicnicHealth launched its life science product today to enable high-quality, low-burden research for life sciences companies and patients.

Check out this transcript of PicnicHealth’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Dr. Nancy Dreyer, talking with AJMC about how the direct-to-patient approach is superior to traditional observational research methods. She focuses on the collection of better real-world data and how patients can benefit.

PicnicHealth today announced it was ranked among the World’s Best Digital Health Companies by Newsweek and named the “Best MedTech Startup” by MedTech Breakthrough.

Read about how AI is empowering real-world evidence generation in observational research as well as the limitations of using AI within this setting.

Q&A with PicnicHealth Chief Commercial Officer, Rachael Thomas Higgins

In this article with PharmaPhorum, our Chief Scientific Advisor, Dr. Nancy Dreyer, provides actionable guidelines on how to integrate direct-to-patient approaches at every stage of your study. See why she believes patient-centric observational research is better fit to answer complex research questions.

PicnicHealth announces the appointment of Rachael Thomas Higgins as Chief Commercial Officer

In honor of Rare Disease Day, we dived into an insightful Q&A session with PicnicHealth's Chief Medical Officer, Daniel R. Drozd, an MD at the forefront of pioneering healthcare research.

PicnicHealth announced the launch of a new study portal to facilitate faster, more accurate observational research.

We’re thrilled to share that #PicnicHealthGivesBack, our annual giving campaign, has returned this year. From now until January 5, 2024, we’re donating to The American Kidney Fund (AKF) and The Chandler Project for each new PicnicHealth sign-up, up to $6k. Join PicnicHealth today to make an even bigger impact.

We are excited to announce the launch of PicnicStudies! With this new solution, run faster and more efficient observational studies from end-to-end.

Join us for a cutting-edge webinar on the intersection of decentralized research and real-world data. Learn from industry experts about the evolving drug development landscape.

PicnicHealth announced the acquisition of AllStripes, a platform dedicated to generating evidence about the rare disease community. This strategic consolidation establishes PicnicHealth as the leading patient-centric evidence generation partner within a rapidly evolving life sciences landscape.

PicnicHealth announced the acquisition of AllStripes, a platform dedicated to generating evidence about the rare disease community. This strategic consolidation establishes PicnicHealth as the leading patient-centric evidence generation partner within a rapidly evolving life sciences landscape.

In this engaging webinar, Clara, Heather, and Dan lead a discussion on the exciting ways stakeholders are optimizing registries to enhance research insights. The session explores the concept of the "Reimagined Registry" and delves into the characteristics of traditional registries. Patient registries are introduced as organized systems utilizing observational study methods to collect standardized patient information. These registries play a pivotal role in providing valuable real-world data for diverse research needs and inquiries. Join us in uncovering the potential of reimagined registries for research excellence.

Get to know Sara Snell Taylor, Senior Epidemiologist at PicnicHealth and discover how she leverages real-world data to improve patient outcomes

PicnicHealth is thrilled to announce our entry into the real-world data market for oncology. Leveraging our successes in chronic and rare diseases, we're now dedicated to advancing oncology research by collaborating directly with people living with cancer.

Roche has selected PicnicHealth as its partner to study Alzhemier’s disease (AD) in real world patients through their latest project, EMPOWER AD. The partnership leverages PicnicHealth’s end-to-end patient-centric approach to building registries from recruitment, to medical records retrieval, and machine learning (ML)-driven, human-curated data abstraction.

Welcome to PicnicHealth’s Team Spotlight series, where we introduce you to the talented people that are working behind the scenes at PicnicHealth. Today you’ll get to know Justin Maslin, the Engineering Manager for the Care Experience team at PicnicHealth

In the era of telehealth and increased inclusivity, the FDA's recommendations pave the way for more patient-centric trials held at non-traditional locations. This game-changing guidance provides invaluable insights into DCT design, remote trial visits, electronic informed consent, safety monitoring, and leveraging digital health technologies.

The global health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) market continues to grow year over year and is estimated to reach 2.46 billion by 2026. Read on for a breakdown of the top 5 trends driving this exciting industry growth.

Whether or not you had the opportunity to attend the three action-packed days of ISPOR this year, we’ve got you covered with a summary of 4 major themes that emerged.

With increasing applications of real-world data (RWD) upstream in the drug development lifecycle, it’s critical to recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. So how can one incorporate different types of data from patients into clinical trials? Through conversation with a panel of experts from the biopharma industry and health technology companies, we will discuss scenarios when patient-mediated, tokenized and/or site-based approaches are warranted. Gaelan Ritter, Sneha Kishnani, and Andrew Larsen share their unique perspectives on the importance of a tailored yet flexible strategy and the potential value this can unlock for researchers and patients alike.Watch the recorded webinar or read the transcript below to explore design considerations for incorporating different types of real-world data into clinical trials.

PicnicHealth is excited to announce that we are expanding our long-term partnership with Roche and Genentech to better understand brain health and accelerate neurological disease research using real-world data.

This year, the FDA shed light on important, cross-cutting considerations for patient-level, real-world data to serve as an external control arm. Our new blog post highlights what you need to know - and the data you need to have - to conduct an externally controlled trial.

CureDuchenne and PicnicHealth Announce Real-World Evidence-Focused Partnership to Incorporate Participant Medical Records into CureDuchenne Link

The studies presented at the HTRS Scientific Symposium showcase some of the many ways PicnicHealth is partnering with leading researchers to deliver robust real-world evidence and improving patient care across different therapeutic areas, including rare diseases, hematology, immunology, neurology, and oncology

PicnicHealth | Does a recent FDA approval signal changes for the wider industry when it comes to RWE?FDA approvals supported by Real-World Evidence (RWE) are rising. Life science companies would be remiss not to consider including evidence on the natural history of disease, unmet medical need, and/or patient-reported outcomes in their regulatory strategies. PicnicHealth has extensive experience helping life science companies execute strategies to leverage Real-World Data (RWD) and incorporate RWE into their research and business planning. Uncovering experiences and outcomes from real patients is at the heart of it all. Contact us to discuss how we can partner on confirmatory evidence studies to strengthen your regulatory submission.

This webinar explores relevant examples of how Data Science and Digital Health are accelerating pharmaceutical innovation and driving impact for patients. Bringing together global experts with diverse perspectives spanning regulatory, R&D and health tech, this conversation highlights innovative, RWD-driven approaches to drug development and regulatory decision-making. Najat, Noga, Jesper, and Evelyn discuss the need for different types of data to construct a complete clinical picture – and how a data-driven approach can drive impact across both research and clinical practice.

Our world had turned upside down, our ground had shifted below us, and we were trying to grasp at anything to hold on to.

We sat down with Evelyn Pyper, Senior Evidence Strategy Manager at PicnicHealth, to talk about successes, limitations, and areas for growth within the wearables industry.

PicnicHealth is launching a four-part webinar series that aims to reframe the “ROI” for RWE generation and tackle the question: beyond the return on investment for RWE, what is the risk of inaction?

2022 was the biggest and most exciting year yet for PicnicHealth - not only for our team, but for our Change Champions, PicnicHealth users, and research partners. We want to thank everyone for being a part of this incredible community and making this past year possible. Before we jump into 2023, join us as we look back at our favorite moments of last year. We raised $60 million in Series C funding! PicnicHealth is ecstatic to have raised a $60m Series C to help build deep, complete, and clinically-rich real-world datasets in several new diseases. The team spent the year growing our research program portfolio, connecting with new patient populations to initiate new studies; introducing new capabilities to our patient app to make it easier for patients to tell us more about their experiences by completing surveys, diaries, and more; and building new data features to help researchers gain new insights faster.

Mental health can mean a lot of different things to different people with seemingly vague definitions. MentalHealth.gov takes broad strokes to include emotional, psychological, and social well-being at the interface of how a person thinks, acts, and feels. Indicators that something is out of balance can present with a number of uncomfortable behaviors including having low or no energy, having unexplained aches or pains, or experiencing severe mood swings. It would be difficult to look through the entire list of possible symptoms and not relate at some level at some point in time, suggesting that mental wellness is just one fabric to the many layers that influence how we function on any given day. Unresolved or persistent mental health issues can lead to a diagnosis of mental illness, but it feels more fluid than other conditions or diseases that use more measurable diagnostic criteria such as abnormal lab values or imaging modalities to diagnose.

PicnicHealth’s research partners Roche-Genentech and other key opinion leaders in the hemophilia space presented data from PicnicHealth’s Hemophilia Cohort in an oral podium presentation and poster session at ASH 2022.

PicnicHealth Gives Back has returned for another year! Every time a patient contributes to a PicnicHealth research study, PicnicHealth will donate to a patient advocacy group until December 31, 2022.

Patient-centric real-world data and evidence are especially conducive to accelerating research of neurodegenerative diseases.

PicnicHealth joined industry leaders as a Silver Sponsor of the MarketsandMarkets Real-world Evidence and Life Sciences Analytics Conference. View our featured presentation "Let's Get Direct: How working directly with patients optimizes delivery of complete RWD".