a step ahead

William Dalton, M.D., Ph.D., discusses moving from reactive to proactive medicine at IHMC’s Evening Lecture Series on December 4.

›

By Cynthia McFarland

Imagine a world where we could prevent cancer rather than have to treat it. We’re on the way to making this a reality, thanks to modern medical technology and extensive data gathered from thousands of past and present cancer patients.

The idea of taking a proactive—rather than reactive—approach to health care, starting with cancer, is the goal of William Dalton, M.D., Ph.D., a medical oncologist who holds 10 U.S. patents and whose career has been dedicated to cancer treatment, research and patient databasing.

Dr. Dalton joined Mo tt Cancer Center in Tampa in 2002. In 2006, he founded M2Gen, a health informatics and datamining company that uses data from consenting patients to examine patient needs and collect evidence to better predict and meet future needs. M2Gen advanced both the Total Cancer Care Protocol, a standard system for tracking patient molecular, clinical and epidemiological data, which follows the patient throughout his or her lifetime, and the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network (ORIEN), which data-partners with the nation’s leading cancer centers and major biopharmaceutical companies.

“What started at Mo tt in Tampa has been adopted by 18 other cancer centers across the United States and has become a huge national e ort,” says Dr. Dalton. “This enhances tremendously our ability to anticipate the needs of patients, including predicting which clinical trial may be best for a patient.”

Thanks to the Total Cancer Care Protocol, there are now 250,000 patients who have consented to be followed and to donate tissue (both tumor and normal cells), making this one of the world’s largest clinically annotated cancer tissue repositories and data resources for cancer research.

Dr. Dalton points out that the patients who have agreed to be part of this massive study play a pivotal role. He considers them partners with clinicians, pharmaceutical companies and regulators, like the FDA, all with the same goal: that one day cancer— and other health issues—can be predicted and best treatments provided based on evidence of what works best for each patient.

“By following cancer patients through their lifetimes, we can identify their needs and, in an evidence-based fashion, learn how to meet those needs for the best outcome,” notes Dr. Dalton. “We believe we can predict need before the need occurs, and that anticipation is how we can go from reactive to proactive medicine. This will revolutionize how cancer is treated, and the evolution of that e ort could extend to all health care.”

Join Dr. Dalton as he speaks on “Moving from Reactive to Proactive Medicine Through Data Science” when he comes to the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Ocala.

Learn more › IHMC EVENING LECTURE

SERIES › William Dalton, M.D., Ph.D. › Tuesday, December 4, from 6-7pm. Doors open at 5:30. › ihmc.us › (352) 387-3050