Oracle, AstraZeneca to explore AI use for clinical research

Oracle and AstraZeneca have announced plans to explore how AI and real-world health data can help clinicians identify patients for clinical trials, accelerate research and bring scientific insights into everyday care.

Under a non-binding agreement, the companies will investigate how Oracle’s health data, cloud, AI and clinical workflow capabilities could be combined with AstraZeneca’s scientific and therapeutic expertise to improve clinical research and patient care.

Collaboration focus areas

Oracle said initial areas of focus could include oncology, cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases, respiratory and immunology, and rare diseases.

“This unique collaboration brings leaders in healthcare and AI together at a global scale to accelerate the journey from the discovery of medicine to patient care,” AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot said. 

“Combining AstraZeneca’s world class science with Oracle’s deep data and technology expertise, we can help clinicians identify patients sooner, optimize clinical trials, and generate evidence continuously across the lifecycle of a medicine.”

Improving patient recruitment and care

According to Oracle, patient recruitment remains a major obstacle in clinical trials, but believes that using AI can help care teams identify eligible patients earlier and improve access to studies.

“Some of the most important opportunities for AI are in healthcare, where better use of data can help turn scientific innovation into better outcomes for patients,” Oracle CEO Mike Sicilia said.

“By bringing AstraZeneca’s scientific expertise together with Oracle’s data, cloud, AI, and healthcare capabilities, we have an opportunity to help accelerate research, connect more patients to clinical trials, and ultimately bring relevant insights into care faster.”

The companies also plan to explore a continuous learning model in which insights from clinical research and routine care inform future study design, safety monitoring and treatment decisions.

They also intend to establish shared governance, reusable technical components and agreed outcome measures to assess results and determine whether successful approaches could be extended across disease areas and geographic markets.

“Too many patients are diagnosed late or face a long journey to get the care they need,” AstraZeneca chief digital, data and AI officer Anne-Claire Gerbaldi said.

“To build the next decade of medicine, we aim to harness AI to connect learnings across science, clinical trials, and everyday care, generating insights that continuously strengthen research, accelerate innovation, and enhance patient outcomes.”

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