Boston, MA - November 23, 2021 - Rhino Health today announced a pilot project with the pancreatic cancer working group of the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN), focused on cross-institution collaboration to improve outcomes for people who have been diagnosed with or are predisposed to developing pancreatic cancer. Using federated learning (FL), participating institutions hope to bring on-board more collaborators and expedite the execution of large-scale research without the encumberment caused by the current need to share data.

The investigators will utilize multi-modal data - including CT scans, cinematic renderings, and laboratory test results - to create AI models that accelerate diagnosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). When diagnosed earlier, the likelihood of survival is substantially higher. The researchers hope to enable earlier diagnosis and tailoring of more precise treatment. Participating institutions include Johns Hopkins Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and City of Hope National Medical Center.

"One of the biggest challenges in pancreatic research is accessing the large datasets required to come to scientific conclusions," said Elliot Fishman, MD, Professor of Radiology, Surgery, Oncology and Urology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. "No one institution can do it alone. Cross-institutional collaboration is essential to changing the trajectory for pancreatic cancer patients, and federated learning makes it possible for multiple researchers to utilize relevant data while always protecting privacy and without creating additional administrative or 'IT burden'."

With federated learning, artificial intelligence models are trained using data from disparate sources - without sharing or aggregating data. This protects privacy, facilitates access to more diverse datasets, and makes it easier for medical researchers and AI developers around the world to collaborate. Rhino Health has partnered with NVIDIA and is leveraging its technology in the Rhino Health Platform - an end-to-end federated learning solution that makes it possible for researchers to quickly get a project up and running and easily add collaborators.

"Rhino Health is putting the power of federated learning in the hands of leading medical researchers, building on the industry-leading capabilities made possible by NVIDIA technology," said Mona Flores, MD, head of medical AI at NVIDIA. "This platform approach is very aligned with our vision for the future of federated learning, which we believe will fundamentally change how healthcare AI is developed and deployed."

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