Watch out, cancer. Big data is coming for you.May 7, 2014 7:00 PM
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Big data may finally get a chance to show its real power and help doctors with a devastating problem: cancer.

Today, big data company Flatiron Health picked up $130 million in new funding. Google Ventures led the round, with First Round Capital, Laboratory Corporation of America, and angel investors also participating. The company also disclosed that a good chunk of the funding is being used to acquire Altos Solutions, a company that provides electronic medical records, although terms were not disclosed.

Google X director Andrew Conrad will be joining Flatiron’s board as a result of the investment.

The New York-based company uses a wide variety of data such as clinical and genomic data, patient outcome information, doctors notes, and billing information, and serves it up to oncologists. Flatiron also does so while abiding by patient privacy laws and does not disclose patient identities.

Currently, between 500 and 1,000 doctors are using Flatiron’s product to look up similar cases to their patients’ and get a better sense of previous outcomes and approaches.

The acquisition of Altos Solutions will enable doctors to enter and update patients’ medical records as they move along the treatment process.

“This acquisition of Altos is like rocket fuel for Flatiron. Here you have two companies with very complementary technologies, both working in oncology. It’s a significant step forward for cancer care,” Google Ventures managing partner Bill Maris told the Wall Street Journal.

Along with the acquisition, Flatiron also plans to use the new funding to hire around 30 new team members, mostly engineers, by the end of the year.

Flatiron Health was founded in 2012 by Zach Weinberg and Nat Turner, who previously cofounded and sold Invite Media to Google in 2012 for $81 million. Flatiron previously raised $8 million as its first round from Google Ventures, First Round Capital, Great Oaks Capital, IA Ventures, Laboratory Corporation, Social+Capital Partnership, SV Angel, and others.

(via WSJ)

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