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AWS Commits $10 Million in Cloud, AI Tech to Pediatric Disease Research
Amazon Web Services is earmarking $10 million to support nonprofit organizations conducting critical research into rare childhood diseases, including cancers.
The fund will enable qualifying organizations to leverage AWS' prodigious cloud platform, including its portfolio of AI and machine learning products, to advance their research into pediatric cancers, genetic diseases and heart conditions, as well as maternal health and the well-being of pediatric caregivers.
Of the $10 million that AWS is allocating for this effort, $3 million will be automatically distributed to the Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C.; Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio; and the Children's Brain Tumor Network in Philadelphia, Pa. Each of these three organizations will receive $1 million from AWS "to support their ongoing, mission-driven work," the cloud giant said.
AWS announced the fund during this summer's AWS Summit event in Washington, D.C. The company aims to support medical research in a field where sample sizes are typically very small, patients are especially vulnerable and funding is notoriously limited.
"Most registered pediatric studies are small-scale, single-center, and not funded by private industries or the federal government, which means fewer treatments are being studied over time," AWS said in its blog post announcing the research fund. "Because drug companies have less financial incentive to develop treatments for this small group of patients, children with cancer and other rare diseases often follow treatment plans that are adapted from adult protocols, and aren't customized for their needs."
Expanding access to scalable data, analytics, AI and machine learning technologies via the cloud can help mitigate these shortcomings for researchers, the company reasoned.
"By more effectively managing data in the cloud, researchers will be able to better understand the genetic make-up of diseases, which leads to quicker, more accurate diagnoses -- and more effective personalized treatments for patients," AWS said.
Patient data in the cloud can be quickly anonymized, categorized, visualized and shared. This lets researchers hurdle one of the biggest challenges when it comes to studying rare pediatric diseases: data siloes.
"What we really want to do is make rare cancers less rare by providing this comprehensive information to those who really want to investigate for a variety of discovery-based goals," said Dr. Elaine Mardis of the Nationwide Children's Hospital, one of the three organizations set to receive $1 million from AWS. "What's driving discovery, in the most immediate term, is enabled by the cloud."
In addition, cloud-delivered AI technologies can potentially help researchers improve screening, imaging and treatment outcomes. "AWS can power data-driven insights and innovative applications to enhance care, increase efficiency of care delivery, and personalize treatment plans," the company said.
More information on the fund is available here.