DBDS Awarded $8.9 Million From ARPA-H to Support AI Tumor Board Research

A tumor board is a multi-disciplinary team of clinicians that reviews and participates in creating the best treatment plan for complex cancer cases.

An award of up to $8.9 million from The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to the Stanford Department of Biomedical Data Science (DBDS) will fund Stanford researchers in the development of AI-augmented support tools for cancer tumor boards. The effort will consist of multi-disciplinary teams of clinicians collaborating to review data on cancer patients to determine the best course of action for each individual.

Stanford DBDS will join the ARPA-H Biomedical Data Fabric Toolbox Program which connects selected multi-organization teams to create bridges across data silos to make health data more accessible and usable. Ten Stanford faculty are involved in the project, including members from DBDS and clinical departments. Stanford Medicine Technology and Digital Solutions (TDS) has a key role, along with research staff, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students who are contributing to the program.

“Currently, AI plays a small role in cancer tumor boards, but its use can be transformative,” DBDS Chair and AI-Assisted Tumor Board Program Principal Investigator Sylvia Plevritis said. “With the use of AI, clinical decision-making can be enhanced by integrating and more effectively analyzing patient data from multiple sources, including the electronic health record, radiology and pathology images and reports and molecular tests.”

Stock photo of doctors discussing imaging — The ARPA-H award will fund Stanford researchers in the development of AI-augmented support tools for cancer tumor boards.

The award, which extends for up to three years, will support the development of AI-assisted tools for the Thoracic Tumor Board initially. Goals for the AI-assisted Tumor Board program include establishing a data marketplace and pipeline for linking all the data types and creating a dashboard for clinicians to quickly gain insights on individual patients and similar patients at Stanford Health Care in order to inform their treatment decisions.

The award will also facilitate collaboration between Stanford DBDS, ARPA-H and other entities to lower the barriers associated with large-scale data collection and integration, and to improve data usability. The tools and approaches developed at Stanford will be shared broadly to enhance national cancer care capabilities.

Stanford’s research with AI-assisted tumor boards began with the establishment of a DBDS Center of Excellence around Multimodal Data Integration in 2023, with a mission to transform the way acute and life-threatening diseases and chronic health conditions are addressed. With an inaugural partnership with Accenture LLC, the Center of Excellence convened a panel of tumor board clinicians in fall of 2023 to shed light on the needs and pain points involved in tumor boards today. That was the catalyst for the AI-augmented tumor board initiative.

“The AI-assisted tumor board initiative is a significant effort that can lead to improved patient care and more efficient operations, first at Stanford and ultimately worldwide,” said Karthik Narain, Group Chief Executive, Technology and Chief Technology Officer at Accenture. “We are delighted to collaborate with the Stanford Department of Biomedical Data Science on this initiative and support the development of a multimodal data marketplace where researchers can apply advanced AI approaches to improve cancer treatments and individual care.”

For more information, please contact dbds-operations@stanford.edu.