I am thrilled to share a significant milestone in the journey of Exactis Innovation. This month, we marked the enrollment of the 10,000th patient in our pan-Canadian, longitudinal oncology databank. This achievement is not just a number but a testament to a decade of unwavering dedication, countless hours of hard work, and the relentless pursuit of a vision that began ten years ago.

Adriana Orimoto is the Principal Coordinator for the PMT activities at the CRCHUM, where she and her team work hard to enroll over 400 patients a year in the PMT program. Adriana shares how her career led her to the CHUM and what her day-to-day job looks like.

As we end 2023, Canada’s life science ecosystem finds itself at a critical juncture. Having recognized the link between access to connected health data and our aspiration to become leaders in the life sciences, especially in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and precision medicine, there is a growing urgency to catch up to other markets that have already invested in health data infrastructure.

Galina Pogossovas primary role at Exactis is as a Clinical Trial Assistant (CTA). In this role, Galina assists the clinical operations team in updating and maintaining documentation relating to clinical trials. Research is a driving interest for Galina, something she is passionate about not only in her work, but in her free time as the producer and co-host of her own popular podcast.

Many at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and at other regulatory agencies are considering the use of real-world data (RWD) as an alternative to traditional confirmatory studies, and are already using real-world evidence (RWE) to make faster decisions for cancer drugs. There is an opportunity for Canada to help accelerate the approval process for drugs that can deliver meaningful improvements to the quality of life and life expectancy of patients with cancer.

Suzan McNamara, PhD is not only Exactis’ Chief Operating Officer. She is also a cancer survivor and patient advocate. At 31, she was diagnosed with a rare disease called Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML). She was given only three to five years to live. But she did not let that happen.

Lee-Anne Pickard, a nurse with close to 20 years of experience in cancer research, was sent an article from the Montreal Gazette in 2016 outlining how Exactis had set up a pan-Canadian network to collect samples from cancer patients for molecular testing. Six years later, Lee-Anne is now officially part of the team as a PMT Coordinator at the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). Lee-Anne shares with us what her job as a PMT Coordinator is all about.