Microsoft Joins Shire to Diagnose Rare Diseases Much Faster

microsoft shire rare disease

Microsoft has partnered with Shire and EURORDIS to accelerate the diagnosis of rare disease, a process that often takes years and takes a big toll on the health of millions.

There are over 6,000 different rare diseases, most of them beginning in childhood. However, diagnosing them takes an average of 5 years, delaying the start of the necessary treatments and therefore often severely affecting the health of children in need of a treatment.

To fight this huge bottleneck, Microsoft has partnered with pharma company Shire and the patient-driven NGO EURORDIS. Together, they’ve formed The Global Commission to End the Diagnostic Odyssey for Children with a Rare Diseasean alliance that will focus on addressing the main obstacles to the diagnosis of rare disease. At the helm will be Shire CEO Flemming Ornskov, Microsoft CMO of Worldwide Health Simon Kos, and EURORDIS CEO Yann Le.

The partners will be particularly looking at three key areas. First, improving the ability of physicians to identify rare diseases. Second, empowering patients and their families to take a more active role in their own health. And third, elaborate policies to improve the outcomes for patients diagnosed with a rare disease. The outcome will be a publication, expected in early 2019, with a roadmap of the main findings of the new alliance after gathering input from experts and patients over the course of a year.


Image via isak55 /Shutterstock

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