OMNY, a national data ecosystem that covers 75 million lives, is launching a GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide) database. The drug specific data resource is the first of its kind for the company as OMNY anticipates the major impact the medications will have on the industry.
GLP-1s are used on- and off-label for diabetes management and weight loss. Mitesh Rao, M.D., physician founder and CEO of OMNY, said GLP-1s also have a host of other benefits in inflammation reduction for conditions like psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease and eye inflammation.
“We've never had a drug like this where we're just scratching the surface on the potential,” Rao said in an interview.
But, right now, healthcare providers can struggle to make informed decisions about whether to put patients on GLP-1s because there is uncertainty about their long-term effects. To date, there hasn’t been a comprehensive data solution on patients who take GLP-1s, according to the company.
“We don't have enough data," Rao said. “We don't have enough endpoints to understand what happens.”
OMNY's GLP-1 database contains electronic medical record data from 645,000 patients who have taken drugs like Mounjaro and Zepbound.
OMNY will supply its GLP-1 network solution to life sciences partners, health system partners and AI-driven health tech partners. The data could also help train new generative AI models, the company says.
Rao said the database will have multispecialty impact and help physicians understand how GLP-1 medications impact other parts of the body like cardiovascular health, cholesterol and gut inflammation.
“It's challenging for a lot of folks to be able to really understand what's happening … you need deep, comprehensive data to understand what a drug is doing to a patient on every level,” Rao said.
The database can give physicians and researchers access to previously hard to access data. This could benefit newer research topics, like use of GLP-1s in pediatrics.
Use of GLP-1s in pediatrics wasn’t approved until December 2022, a press release by OMNY says, which means data and use cases on pediatric patients have been very limited to date. OMNY’s network has valuable information on pediatric GLP-1 use. The data have enabled a study that found the average pediatric user was 16 years old, and 72% were female patients.
The data resource can also supplement knowledge about GLP-1 use through a patient’s care journey by incorporating social determinants of health data like economic security, food insecurity and social isolation.
OMNY worked to ensure the data were representative of the U.S. population in race and ethnicity so newer healthcare treatments are adequately studied and tested on minority populations.
With OMNY’s new data solution, researchers and healthcare provider organizations can utilize the constantly updating database that tracks GLP-1 patients through their care journeys and beyond the time of use of the medication.
Rao says the database also reflects a larger trend in healthcare towards more precision medicine. “We're no longer trying to simply see specific illnesses and just treat them. We're thinking about how health across the entire spectrum works,” Rao said.