News & Events

Introducing the Alzheimer’s Trials Data Discovery Challenge

We are proud to announce the launch of the Alzheimer’s Trials Data Discovery Challenge — a $75,000 research competition powered by the Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative and Vivli, and supported by Alzheimer’s Research UK.

The challenge is built around a fully harmonized control-arm dataset drawn from 11 Alzheimer’s trials across five pharmaceutical sponsors: AstraZeneca, Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, and Takeda. It brings together 7,089 placebo-arm participants and more than 20 years of data — never before analyzed at this scale.

Three research tracks address questions newly answerable at this scale: sex differences in Alzheimer’s disease, rates of progression, and subtyping and heterogeneity. Up to 24 teams will participate, with $25,000 awarded to the first-place team in each track. Winning teams will also have the opportunity to publish findings in a high-impact journal and present at a major Alzheimer’s conference.

All analysis takes place within Vivli’s secure, cloud-based research environment. Teams must include a PI sponsor and a statistician at minimum.

The first letter of intent deadline is September 1, 2026. Winners will be announced in Spring 2027.

Learn more and apply →

Vivli Platform Version 4.0 Now Available

Version 4.0 of the Vivli platform was released June 27, 2026 and is now available to users. 

Release 4.0 includes several key improvements designed to enhance the user experience and support more secure, connected workflows:

    • Improved and updated platform navigation
    • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) enabled for all users to further enhance security

All Vivli resources and how to guides have been updated to reflect the latest release 

“We are delighted to have added MFA to the Vivli platform to further enhance our security posture,” said Robert Conklin, Vivli Chief Technology Officer. 

 

The Vivli Global Ambassador Program: Highlights from the Inaugural Cohort

Global researchers used shared trial data to advance work in cancer, diabetes, and clinical trial design.

The Vivli Global Ambassador Program brought together a diverse group of researchers selected for their commitment to data transparency and leadership in advancing clinical research around the world. Through their use of shared clinical research data, these Ambassadors help promote responsible data sharing and reuse within their fields. Over the past year, the inaugural cohort has shown how data available through Vivli can be incorporated into active research programs to generate new findings, support scientific exchange, and create new opportunities for collaboration. One of the most important contributions of the program has been visibility. For many researchers, data reuse remains unfamiliar despite growing expectations around data sharing. Ambassadors helped bridge that gap by sharing their experiences at major scientific meetings and academic seminars across four continents, from the European Society for Radiation Oncology meeting in Vienna and the International Congress on Lung Cancer in Barcelona, to the Princess Takamatsu Symposium in Tokyo, the IATDMCT meeting in Singapore, and the Vivli Annual Meeting in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In each setting they discussed both the outcomes of their work and the practical realities of conducting secondary research, walking colleagues through everything from the data application process to study design, and introducing investigators across disciplines to approaches that are increasingly shaping the research landscape. What follows is a closer look at the work of the individual ambassadors.
Dr. David McAllister (University of Glasgow, Scotland) used Vivli individual participant data (IPD) to drive a productive year of diabetes and trial-methodology research, publishing four peer-reviewed papers in 2025. These included a network meta-analysis of age and sex differences in the efficacy of treatments for type 2 diabetes, published in JAMA, and an IPD meta-analysis of frailty across trials of glucose-lowering therapies, published in PLOS Medicine, alongside further work on trial representativeness and trial attrition. Beyond his own publications, Dr. McAllister presented on Vivli as a research resource at the universities of Bristol, Edinburgh, and Glasgow and at an EU doctoral training network, is supervising PhD students working directly with Vivli IPD, and drew on his established relationship with Vivli to strengthen several major grant applications and new institutional collaborations.
Dr. Jonas Saal (University Hospital Bonn, Germany) focused his ambassador year on immuno-oncology biomarkers, presenting Vivli-derived analyses of the modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS) and progressive-disease classification — including its use in selecting patients for treatment beyond progression — at oncology and urology meetings such as the DGHO annual meeting and the AIO Herbstkongress, where his work earned a Young Investigator Award. His written output included a review in the European Journal of Cancer on sodium and immunotherapy and a Frontiers in Immunology article on mGPS in hepatocellular carcinoma, building on a body of Vivli-based publications spanning immunotherapy beyond progression, metastatic urothelial carcinoma, and metastatic renal cell carcinoma. He described Vivli as “an enabler of collaborative, methodologically rigorous secondary research.”
Dr. Youssef Zeidan (Baptist Health South Florida, USA) advanced his breast cancer research program through Vivli, completing a pooled analysis of the TRYPHAENA and NeoSphere trials examining radiation therapy in clinically node-positive, HER2-positive breast cancer. “The VIVLI Ambassador program provided an outstanding opportunity to support my ongoing breast cancer research initiatives,” he wrote. The findings were presented at the European Society for Radiation Oncology (ESTRO) annual meeting in Vienna and published in BMC Cancer. The project also became a mentorship opportunity: the trainee who led the analysis, a medical student, went on to match into radiation oncology at Stanford. Dr. Zeidan’s continued partnership with Vivli has since produced a newly approved project applying the same approach to triple-negative breast cancer.
Dr. Ashley Hopkins (Flinders University, Australia) drew on Vivli-accessed data to investigate how concomitant medicines and patient characteristics shape cancer outcomes, with written outputs including studies on concomitant medicines and patient-reported outcomes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a large-scale IPD meta-analysis of sex-based differences in solid-tumour outcomes (accepted in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute), and a breast-cancer outcomes paper led by a member of his team, Dr. Bradley Menz. Dr. Hopkins shared this work through an invited talk at IATDMCT 2025 in Singapore and an industry session on AI in oncology, while his engagement with the South Australian Comprehensive Cancer Network is now feeding directly into a new collaborative Vivli application on youth-onset cancers — and contributed to a PhD completion incorporating Vivli-derived work.
Dr. Diego Chowell (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA) championed responsible data sharing within the AI and computational immuno-oncology community, weaving the case for transparent, well-governed clinical and trial datasets into talks on tumor evolution, immune recognition, and immunotherapy response prediction at Princeton University, the Princess Takamatsu Symposium in Tokyo, the International Congress on Lung Cancer in Barcelona, and a scientific seminar at VHIO. His central message, that robust, externally validated AI models depend on access to shared, reusable data, resonated with audiences of oncologists, computational biologists, and trialists. He is now developing a Vivli data request to externally validate his SCORPIO model for immune-risk prediction and trial stratification, laying the groundwork for a future Vivli-enabled analysis.
Dr. Marco Valgimigli (Cardiocentro Ticino Institute, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Lugano, Switzerland) carried the case for responsible clinical-trial data sharing into the interventional cardiology and cardiovascular pharmacology community, anchored in his own Vivli-enabled work. As Lead Investigator of the PANTHER collaborative initiative — an individual patient data meta-analysis comparing P2Y12 inhibitor monotherapy with aspirin for secondary prevention in coronary artery disease, conducted using datasets accessed through Vivli and published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology — he was able to present a completed, peer-reviewed project as a concrete proof of concept. He brought that example to talks and discussions at ESC Congress 2025 in Madrid, the inaugural EAPCI Summit 2026 in Munich, and FOKUS HERZ BERN 2026, and to direct engagement with trainees and collaborators at Cardiocentro Ticino, walking colleagues through the full arc of a Vivli data request to show how shared participant-level data enable rigorous, academically independent secondary research.
The influence of the program has also extended into the next generation of researchers. Through mentorship, collaboration, and the sharing of practical expertise, supervising doctoral students working with Vivli data, supporting trainees into competitive clinical positions, and seeding new multi-institutional projects, ambassadors have helped strengthen a growing community of investigators who view shared data as a resource for discovery. Their experiences provide examples that other researchers can learn from as they consider how existing datasets might contribute to their own work. As the first year of the program concludes, the cohort’s accomplishments reflect a broader shift toward a research culture in which data are not only shared, but actively reused. Their work highlights the continued value of clinical research data and the new knowledge that can emerge when those data remain available to the scientific community.

Beyond the Study: How Shared Data Is Advancing Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Care

For patients living with IBD, the two main types being Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis (UC), finding the right treatment is rarely a straight line.

Despite a growing number of effective therapies, clinicians face unresolved questions; which patients will respond to a given treatment, and how should we track progress? Through platforms like Vivli, investigators can access anonymized individual participant-level data from completed clinical research and use it to generate new evidence to advance understanding of IBD progression and improve treatment approaches.

Data used in these studies was made possible through Vivli’s data sharing platform, spanning a range of questions working to advance the field of IBD care.

Significant findings have emerged from researchers looking across multiple studies. By pooling individual patient-level data, Vipul Jairath and his team from Alimentiv found that placebo response rates vary significantly across UC trials. The same research group also examined how patient age affects the efficacy and safety of advanced therapies during induction in UC, finding that trial populations do not always reflect the broader, more complex patients seen in everyday practice. Knowing where evidence holds and where it has limits allows clinicians to apply it more appropriately.

Other work is tackling one of the more consequential problems in IBD care: identifying in advance which patients will respond to a given therapy. Neeraj Narula and colleagues at Hamilton Health Sciences found that eosinophil levels in blood and tissue predict which UC patients are likely to benefit from mirikizumab, a biologic therapy. For patients who have cycled through multiple treatments without success, a reliable predictor of response before starting therapy could mean the difference between months of ineffective treatment and a faster path to remission. The same research group also found that early endoscopic changes during treatment can identify Crohn’s disease patients whose response is delayed, giving clinicians a window to intervene earlier in the treatment course.

Not all insights emerging from this research are purely biological. Shenghong Zhang and colleagues at Sun Yat-sen University found that early improvement in mental health symptoms predicts long-term disease remission in UC. IBD is typically monitored through endoscopy and blood tests. The finding suggests that psychological state during treatment may carry more clinical information than is currently recognized, and that a more complete picture of disease control may require looking beyond biology alone.

Behind each of these studies are patients who enrolled in research in the hope that their experience would help others. That contribution does not end at publication. IBD affects millions of people worldwide, and for many, the path to effective treatment involves years of diagnostic delay, failed therapies, and significant impact on quality of life. The work being done with Vivli-accessed data is producing findings that are reshaping how the field understands treatment response, disease monitoring, and the design of future research.  Each new analysis builds on the last. This cumulative progress exists because study sponsors are meeting their obligations to participants, ensuring research data is used responsibly beyond the original study.

Learn more about accessing data through Vivli at vivli.org


Recent gastroenterology and IBD public disclosures associated with Vivli-hosted data include:

Placebo rates in randomized clinical trials of ulcerative colitis: an individual patient data meta-analysis— Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis | PI: Vipul Jairath, Alimentiv Inc. | Data Request 7288

Impact of concomitant corticosteroid use on adverse events in ulcerative colitis clinical trials — Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis | PI: Neeraj Narula, Hamilton Health Sciences | Data Request 10381. Read the full case study on Vivli’s website.

Early Improvement of Mental Health Is Associated With Long-Term Disease Remission in Ulcerative Colitis— American Journal of Gastroenterology | PI: Shenghong Zhang, Sun Yat-sen University | Data Request 11327

Patients with ulcerative colitis that have endoscopic Mayo score 1 and active histologic inflammation have similar outcomes to mild-moderate patients: a post hoc analysis of the VARSITY trial— European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology | PI: Neeraj Narula, Hamilton Health Sciences | Data Request 11369

Serum and Histologic Eosinophilia as a Predictive Biomarker of Response to Mirikizumab in Ulcerative Colitis— Inflammatory Bowel Diseases | PI: Neeraj Narula, Hamilton Health Sciences | Data Request 11425

Estimation of the Harvey Bradshaw Index from the Patient-Reported Outcome 2 in Crohn’s Disease— Inflammatory Bowel Diseases | PI: Reena Khanna, Lawson Health Research Institute | Data Request 7404

Comparative Predictive Utility of MM-SES-CD and SES-CD for Week 52 Endoscopic Remission in Crohn’s Disease— Inflammatory Bowel Diseases | PI: Neeraj Narula, Hamilton Health Sciences | Data Request 10706

Week 12 Reduction in MM-SES-CD is Predictive of Delayed Response to Upadacitinib in Crohn’s Disease— Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology | PI: Neeraj Narula, Hamilton Health Sciences | Data Request 11350

Impact of Age on Efficacy and Safety of Advanced Therapies During Induction in Ulcerative Colitis— Digestive Diseases and Sciences | PI: Vipul Jairath, University of Western Ontario | Data Request 7850

One-year Dynamics of Clinical Activity During Biologics Therapy in Ulcerative Colitis— Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis | PI: Shenghong Zhang, Sun Yat-sen University | Data Request 10032

Vivli Strengthens European Expansion, Appoints Jennifer O’Callaghan Executive Director of Vivli Europe


In response to growing demand for secure, responsible clinical data sharing across Europe—and the increasing complexity of the evolving regulatory and research environment—Vivli has appointed Jennifer O’Callaghan as Executive Director of Vivli Europe, starting April 16, 2026.

Jennifer will lead the newly established Netherlands-based stichting (foundation), bringing deep expertise in clinical data sharing and the governance of responsible secondary use of clinical research data. Her experience spans roles as a research funder, advisor to multi-stakeholder consortia, and executive within global pharmaceutical organizations.

Leading the European organization, Jennifer will shape strategy and engage partners to enable greater access to high-quality data for researchers across Europe. She will ensure that activities align with the region’s regulatory frameworks and drive initiatives to expand collaboration among industry, academia, and policymakers.

“Europe is at a pivotal moment for clinical research data sharing, and Jennifer brings a rare depth of knowledge in this rapidly evolving field,” said Vivli’s Chief Executive Officer, Rebecca Li. “Strong regional leadership is critical as we accelerate research and expand access to trusted data that can improve patient outcomes. Jennifer’s leadership will be instrumental in advancing Vivli’s mission, scaling impact, and strengthening partnerships across the region.”

Jennifer has been involved with Vivli for over a decade, serving on the foundational working group that established high standards for patient privacy, governance, and transparency while fostering collaboration across pharma, biotech, academia, and the research community to produce new insights.

“At a time of surging demand for data, Europe faces the dual challenge of increasingly complex regulation and the need to balance patient privacy with responsible data innovation, including AI,” said Jennifer O’Callaghan, Executive Director of Vivli Europe. “Vivli Europe will play a central role in meeting this challenge through responsible data sharing in compliance with EU legislation.”

For more on the launch of Vivli Europe, see our earlier announcement: Vivli Expands Trusted Clinical Data Access with Vivli Europe (March 19, 2026).

Vivli Researcher Spotlight: Dr. Christian Lood on What a Routine Blood Test Can Reveal About Cancer Survival

For 4,484 patients enrolled across five Phase III oncology trials, the answer to an urgent question may have been present in their blood from the start. A study conducted using individual patient data accessed through Vivli, found that the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived from a standard complete blood count, independently predicted overall survival and progression-free survival across lung, colorectal, and gastric cancers. The findings were published in Frontiers in Oncology in July 2025. 

Dr. Christian Lood, an Associate Professor at the University of Washington specializing in neutrophil biology and biomarker development, has spent his career building the case that neutrophils play a far more consequential role in cancer than the field has historically recognized.

“There is an emerging sense that neutrophils are instrumental in tumor development, he said. I wanted to highlight their unique role in cancer, to further development of novel biomarkers as well as therapeutic targets that are currently not considered in the field.”

Prior studies had proposed NLR as a prognostic marker, but inconsistent findings and limited large-scale validation had kept it from routine clinical use. The scale of data available through Vivli changed what was possible. By accessing records from five Eli Lilly-sponsored Phase III trials spanning three cancer types, Dr. Lood’s team conducted an analysis that earlier work could not support.

Access to data through Vivli allowed us to analyze a larger patient population and wider variety of treatments than would have been feasible in a standard clinical setting,he noted.

Baseline NLR proved to be an independent predictor of survival outcomes after adjusting for age, sex, and disease stage. Predictive performance was strongest in patients under 60, non-White patients, those with Stage IV disease, and those with lower functional status at baseline, a pattern that argues against uniform thresholds across populations. Longitudinal NLR change added little beyond the baseline reading. The initial measurement carries the primary prognostic signal. 

Dr. Lood hopes the findings move NLR closer to routine use in oncology and open a research direction focused on soluble markers of neutrophil activation, which may prove more sensitive than cell counts alone in identifying patients with poor prognosis.

“I hope our research will trigger more studies into the potential clinical utility of neutrophil activation biomarkers in cancer patients,” he said.

The individual patient data from the five trials used in this analysis remain available through Vivli.

Further Reading 

Performance of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio as a prognostic tool for survival in solid cancers — Frontiers in Oncology (July 2025)

Vivli Platform Version 3.9 Now Available

Version 3.9 of the Vivli platform was released February 28th, 2026 and is now available to users. Highlights of the release include: 

  • Updated Organization Administrator Dashboard: Organization Administrators now have an improved dashboard showing Data Requests, Publications, Data Upload, and Enquiries awaiting their action. Dashboard information can also be downloaded. 
  • Multi-Factor Authentication: Multi-factor authentication for user login is being rolled out over the coming weeks. Users will receive an email before this is activated on their account. 
  • Data Request Form Enhancements: Users can now download the data request form, compare different versions of the form as a PDF as part of the version history of a request, and remove a research team member while a request is in draft. 
  • Data Request Summary Report: A new report of the Data Request Summary is available for your team to access at any time. 

All Vivli resources and how to guides have been updated to reflect the latest release 

“Vivli is delighted to provided additional benefit to our users, which we have prioritized enhancing these features based upon their feedback,” said Julie Wood, COO Vivli. “We would encourage all users to sign up to provide feedback so we can continue to improve the platform to meet their needs”

Researchers can complete the form below to sign up and take part in user interviews.

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    Vivli Researcher Spotlight: Dr. Byeongzu Ghang on investigating whether urate-lowering therapy (ULT) is effective in delaying the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with gout

    Byeongzu Ghang is an Associate Professor and Rheumatology Specialist in the Jeju National University School of Medicine, Jeju, Korea. His primary research and clinical focus is on gout, inflammatory myositis, and interstitial lung disease (ILD). Dr. Ghang’s team submitted a research proposal to access Vivli to conduct analysis relevant to their topic, “Reanalysis of CARES study to investigate the changes of estimated glomerular filtration rate after long-term febuxostat or allopurinol treatment in gout patients.” The team’s completed research has recently been presented to the research community in publications including the Journal of Rheumatic Diseases and Kidney International. He sat down with Vivli to tell us more about accessing individual participant data to advance this research, and the potential for using biomarkers to improve clinical research focus and therapeutic targets.


    Tell us more about your research. What is the current state of management in your public disclosure topic?

    Our research focuses on the impact of urate-lowering therapy (ULT) in delaying the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with gout. Through a post-hoc analysis of the CARES trial, we discovered that maintaining low serum uric acid (sUA) levels, particularly below 6 mg/dL, is significantly associated with a reduced risk of CKD progression. This finding challenges earlier conclusions drawn from trials on asymptomatic hyperuricemia, which often excluded patients with gout. Currently, ULT remains underutilized in CKD management, with uncertainty surrounding its benefits for kidney function. Our study provides compelling evidence supporting its protective role in gout patients.

    What led you to want to research this topic?

    The intersection of gout, hyperuricemia, and CKD is a clinical area with considerable unmet needs. While hyperuricemia is linked to CKD progression, whether this relationship is causal has been debated. My clinical experiences with gout patients experiencing CKD progression, combined with the lack of robust evidence in this domain, motivated me to explore whether ULT could serve as a meaningful intervention. Furthermore, the potential of addressing CKD progression through a modifiable risk factor like sUA levels was an appealing avenue for research.

    What difference do you hope your research might make in the field/for patients and how has it moved forward the treatment of patients?

    We aim to bridge the gap in understanding the renal benefits of ULT specifically for gout patients, a group often overlooked in earlier trials. By demonstrating that sustained low sUA levels correlate with stable or improved renal function, our findings can influence clinical guidelines to integrate ULT more robustly into CKD management for gout patients. This research could ultimately improve patient outcomes by reducing CKD progression, thereby decreasing dialysis dependency and associated healthcare burdens.

    How could your findings be used in future clinical trials on this disease area?

    Our findings provide a strong rationale for designing clinical trials focusing on ULT in gout patients with varying CKD stages. Future studies could investigate optimal sUA targets, the long-term renal outcomes of ULT, and the role of MSU crystal reduction in kidney protection. Furthermore, the mechanistic insights from our study can guide the exploration of novel therapeutic targets in CKD progression.

    How did the data you accessed through Vivli help you in answering your research question?

    The Vivli platform was instrumental in providing patient-level data from the CARES trial. This enabled us to perform a detailed post-hoc analysis, including propensity score matching and multivariable regression, to evaluate the relationship between sUA levels and CKD progression. Without this access, it would have been impossible to derive such granular insights into the renal benefits of ULT.

    What was your experience like in the process of requesting data using the Vivli platform?

    The Vivli platform provided a seamless experience in requesting and accessing trial data. Its user-friendly interface and comprehensive repository allowed us to identify and utilize relevant datasets efficiently. The robust data-sharing policies and support provided by Vivli enhanced the overall research process.

    Would you use the Vivli platform again? Would you recommend Vivli to others? What improvements would you recommend?

    Absolutely, I would use Vivli again and highly recommend it to other researchers. It is a valuable tool for accelerating scientific discovery. However, one area for improvement could be the inclusion of more real-time assistance during the application process, especially for first-time users navigating data access requirements.

    What advice would you give to other researchers about doing this kind of analysis?

    Thoroughly understand the dataset and its limitations before diving into analysis. Predefine your hypotheses and statistical methods to maintain rigor and transparency. Also, collaborating with experts in biostatistics and clinical data interpretation can add significant value. Lastly, platforms like Vivli are invaluable for accessing high-quality data, so researchers should familiarize themselves with such resources.

    Further reading

    Reanalysis of CARES study to investigate the changes of estimated glomerular filtration rate after long-term febuxostat or allopurinol treatment in gout patients (Vivli Research Request 7388).

    Ghang B, Kim J, Yoo. BPOS0284 CHANGES OF ESTIMATED GLOMERULAR FILTRATION RATE AFTER LONG-TERM FEBUXOSTAT OR ALLOPURINOL TREATMENT IN GOUT PATIENTS. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 2022; 81:386. https://ard.bmj.com/content/81/Suppl_1/386.1.full

    Byeongzu Ghang, Jinseok Kim. Effects of long-term febuxostat or allopurinol on the progression of chronic kidney disease. Journal of Rheumatic Diseases, Vol. 29, Suppl. 1, May 2022 p271 O-54.

    Ghang, B. Delayed progression of chronic kidney disease in gout patients during urate-lowering therapy: A patient-level post-hoc analysis of the CARES trial. International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases, 27 (Suppl. 2) P013. http://doi.org/10.1111/1756-185X.15172.

    Ghang, B., Park, J., Lee, J.S., Lim, J.S., Kim, H., Liew, D.F., Kim, J., Kang, D.H. and Yoo, B., 2024. Post-hoc analysis of the CARES trial suggests delayed progression of chronic kidney disease in patients with gout during urate-lowering therapy. Kidney International. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.kint.2024.10.022.

    Vivli Researcher Spotlight: Improving mentorship and clinical practice in breast cancer care with Vivli

    Youssef Zeidan is a radiation oncologist at the Lynn Cancer Center, part of Baptist Health South Florida. Dr. Zeidan was previously an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the American University of Beirut, where he mentored several students who are now working at cancer centers and universities throughout the United States. Dr. Zeidan and his team have authored more than 50 publications related to radiation oncology. He was also part of the committee that developed the 2025 American Society for Radiation Oncology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and Society of Surgical Oncology guideline on postmastectomy radiation therapy. His contributions to that committee drew upon research conducted with the Vivli platform.

    In the extended interview below, Dr. Zeidan discusses how his work with Vivli has influenced both his medical practice and mentorship. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

    Watch the video: Dr. Zeidan discusses how his research with Vivli informs his clinical practice

    How did you first learn about Vivli?  

    I learned about Vivli first from a colleague at a medical conference that I was attending, and it’s been a great journey since then. I’m very thankful for the circumstances. We were at a conference for breast cancer, and they shared with me that I could access clinical trial data through Vivli.

    What made you interested in using the platform?  

    Once I started looking at Vivli, I found it very helpful in asking clinically relevant questions, especially in my domain, which is radiation therapy for breast cancer. Over the past seven years, Vivli has been a great partner in answering key questions in radiation therapy that are relevant to breast cancer patients. We run into situations in treating breast cancer where there are a lot of grey zones, and we don’t have available clinical trial data. Vivli has been a great platform for doing secondary analysis and trying to answer those questions.

    Why is Vivli so important for your area of research?

    Radiation therapy uses high energy x-rays to treat cancer patients, in my case breast cancer. Vivli has this unique ability to capture data about radiation therapy even though the trials did not specifically ask about the impact of radiation therapy in breast cancer.

    For us, it’s a tremendous resource to repurpose and re-analyze those trials for secondary objectives to see the impact of radiation therapy, rather than the drug that the trial is trying to evaluate. In order to do that, we have to do it in a very balanced manner, in a very efficient manner. It takes a tremendous effort from the statisticians, the physicians, the people collecting data, and our partners at Vivli to bring it to an outcome. 

    How have you used Vivli as a tool for mentorship?  

    Many of my research team members started as medical students working with me as their advisor. Some of them have now taken faculty positions in very important cancer centers. It’s very rewarding to see the impact of that work, not only in terms of scientific value, but also in terms of the humanitarian value and what happens to the careers of the individuals who are conducting the research.

    As a faculty member, I always had students that knocked on my door; they love to be involved in research, love to have projects. The interest is genuine—so to have these students with that drive to answer clinical questions that are out there is huge for us. Having a platform that is willing to partner with us as researchers and help us mentor the younger generation of researchers made the experience even better.

    The supervision part was important, but once they get the hang of the Vivli platform and they know how to access the dataset, it really goes by much more effectively and efficiently. It’s a process from accessing the raw data to extracting it, analyzing it, making charts, and then sharing it, whether in terms of presentations or manuscripts. All of these steps from accessing data to analyzing to sharing, whether in terms of a conference or a paper, are different stations and different opportunities for mentoring people who are entering into the medical workforce. For me, looking forward at what those students—and now physicians—are doing and how they’re going to carry that into their own careers and mentor the next generation, it’s really an exponential impact.

    You practice medicine, as well as researching. Can you tell us a bit about how continuing to practice medicine affects your perspective as a researcher?  

    My practice is primarily breast cancer. A lot of the cases that we see are challenging and don’t have a straightforward answer, and we have to scratch our heads to find the optimal treatments according to the best evidence. In doing that process and seeing patients in the clinic, we come up with new questions that we don’t have an answer to every day.

    Vivli is an excellent partner and a resource for us to inquire about those questions and find answers through rigorous clinical research and secondary analyses. It really takes a village to come up with answers and clinically meaningful outcomes.  I find this exercise of coming up with questions in the clinic, taking them back to the research drawing board, and bringing those answers back to the clinic to be a very fruitful one.

    Your research was recently cited in the updated guideline for breast cancer radiation therapy. Could you talk a bit about that?

    Recently, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) decided to update their guideline for radiation therapy for breast cancer. The prior guideline was 11 years old. You can imagine how much new data became available, whether from our group or others, during this 11-year period. Fortunately, they recognized this as an area of need.

    The part that was assigned to me to lead as part of the committee was actually the part that I had researched using the data provided by Vivli, so it was full circle for me. What we’ve done is to capture data that came up, including secondary analyses from clinical trials—using data like that available from Vivli—and cite that data as evidence for guiding practitioners on how to treat specific types of breast cancer cases with radiation therapy.

    Thinking about your patients, is that what you hope the outcome will be? Something like that guideline?

    There is not a single case that we see in the clinic that is identical to the prior case. Each case is unique in several aspects. In situations where the quality of the evidence is not very high or there are grey zones where we lack evidence, I share that with my patients. Being focused and specialized in a certain domain really gives you that edge to bring to your patients the latest and greatest research, rather than having them use open, non-resource-verified sources online. Making that step easier on the patients at a time when they have so many things on their plate is very important.

    What Vivli is doing on a bigger scale is really impacting healthcare in so many ways, specifically cancer care. I’m grateful for having the opportunity to use Vivli for research, and I think the process made me a better physician for my patients.

    Vivli CEO Rebecca Li to speak about Vivli at the Nexus of Open Science symposium

    On November 14, Vivli CEO Rebecca Li, PhD, will speak at the Nexus of Open Science, hosted by Johns Hopkins University. This one-day symposium will bring together leaders in neuroscience, clinical research, biomedical engineering, and data science to discuss open science practices, data sharing policies, and more.

    Dr. Li will speak to Johns Hopkins faculty and students about how researchers can share and access clinical trial data securely via the Vivli platform. She will highlight the importance of sharing trial data, the value of secondary research, and how to access data via the Vivli platform. Finally, she’ll offer real-life examples of how researchers have leveraged the Vivli platform to advance health research. Learn more.