Stanford Health Care has announced a deeper integration of Atropos Health's real-world evidence (RWE) platform into its electronic health record (EHR) system, enabling physicians to access personalized clinical evidence without leaving their workflow.
The expanded implementation will allow Atropos Health's AI-powered platform to generate evidence that helps clinicians finalize their encounter notes, including those created by Stanford's ambient AI provider, DAX from Microsoft. This integration represents a significant advancement in Stanford's previously announced "Patients Like Mine" initiative.
"The key to maximizing the value of technology is to make seamless integrations that reduce friction on provider workflows," said Brigham Hyde, MD, CEO and co-founder at Atropos Health. "Integrating personalized evidence from Atropos Health with ambient AI and the EHR demonstrates Stanford's commitment to adopting solutions that improve clinician satisfaction and drive better outcomes."
From Research Project to Clinical Implementation
Atropos Health's journey began as a research project at Stanford Medicine in 2011. The original concept, known as the "Green Button," aimed to answer a fundamental question: What if pressing a virtual button could trigger a search of millions of similar, anonymized electronic records to instantly aggregate data to inform patient care?
This concept evolved into the Clinical Informatics Consult service, with a proof of concept built at Stanford Health Care. Following successful pilot testing, Saurabh Gombar, Nigam Shah, and Brigham Hyde founded Atropos Health in late 2020 to democratize access to real-world evidence, securing seed funding shortly thereafter.
By 2021, Stanford Health Care had formally partnered with Atropos to support clinical decision-making across its network of more than 2,000 affiliated physicians.
Advancing Evidence-Based Medicine at the Point of Care
Stanford clinicians already utilize several Atropos tools, including:
- The Atropos Green Button, which delivers RWE in less than 48 hours
- ChatRWD, a generative AI application that produces full observational studies in minutes
The new integration takes this collaboration further by embedding these capabilities directly into clinical workflows, potentially generating evidence before questions are even formally asked.
"Over our multi-year collaboration with Atropos Health, we've seen significant benefit when it comes to advancing research and providing evidence-based medicine at the bedside," said Michael Pfeffer, senior vice president and chief information and digital officer for Stanford Medicine. "We are seeing additional opportunities to leverage AI-enabled technology to ultimately benefit patients through personalized medicine with this program."
Technical Implementation and Security
Atropos Health's GENEVA OS™ operating system enables rapid evidence generation across a broad network of real-world data. The platform is already installed inside Stanford Health Care's firewall, ensuring data security while providing access to Alexandria™, a repository containing tens of thousands of pre-existing studies across domains such as pharmacy, value-based care, and care management.
The pilot implementation will evaluate provider satisfaction, including time savings and the influence of RWE on treatment decisions.
Expanding Partnerships in Healthcare
This announcement follows Atropos Health's recent collaboration with Ontada, a McKesson business working in community oncology RWD, clinical education, and point-of-care technologies. The companies stated that the collaboration would enhance use cases for clinicians, researchers, and healthcare leaders to design care protocols, advance precision medicine, and develop new treatments in oncology.
In 2022, the American Society of Clinical Oncology's CancerLinQ also announced a partnership with Atropos Health to provide oncology clinicians with the latest real-world evidence to help inform personalized care and treatment.
Toward a Learning Health System
The integration of Atropos Health's platform with Stanford's EHR system represents a significant step toward realizing the vision of a learning health system—one where clinical data continuously informs and improves patient care.
By embedding RWE directly into clinical workflows, Stanford Health Care is positioning itself at the forefront of data-driven, personalized medicine, potentially transforming how clinicians access and utilize evidence to make treatment decisions.
As healthcare continues to embrace AI and data analytics, collaborations like this one between Stanford Health Care and Atropos Health may serve as a model for other institutions seeking to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice, ultimately improving patient outcomes through more informed, evidence-based care.
