Merck works to implement Syntropy in Spain, an innovative artificial intelligence project which encourages collaboration and advance treatments for cancer patients

Improving people's health and quality of life through science and technology, or in other words, to go where others don’t, solving complex problems to tackle high-impact diseases. This is the main objective of the science and technology company Merck, an ambitious goal to which Merck wants to respond with innovation as the pivot of its three business areas (Healthcare, Life Science and Electronics). 

One example of this is Syntropy, a collaborative project to improve cancer patient care through artificial intelligence. In this project, Merck aims to accelerate and simplify care processes for cancer patients. "Today, cancer patients and research centres around the world generate a large amount of biomedical data that is not integrated, accessible, verifiable or shareable. In fact, much of this data is trapped in silos   within institutions and is often inaccessible to the scientists and clinicians who need it to advance their work, leading to major inefficiencies", explains Alejandro Expósito, Digital and Business Operations Director at Merck in Spain.

This project, which MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas have recently joined, is allowing researchers to focus on generating knowledge and building a strong foundation of transformative collaborations/partnerships with the ultimate goal of accelerating discoveries for all cancer patients.

It is a technology that seeks to integrate and unlock patient health data through a digital platform that allows researchers to share and analyse information from many different organisations. The aim is to provide scientists and research centres with leading technology for data integration and analysis, while ensuring data control, ownership, and traceability, to advance research and establish better diagnoses for cancer patients.

In the end, Syntropy aims to unlock untapped data by facilitating its secure and transparent exchange between researchers and institutions, thereby creating an ecosystem that encourages collaboration, accelerates scientific discovery and simplifies care processes for people with cancer and other pathologies.