Lumiio streamlines data collection, changing the face of global health collaboration

Reliable, consistent, and applicable data is a key feature of well-executed research and the development of new treatments. For some diseases and disorders, possible study participants are spread out across the world, preventing effective research and slowing down the process of improving quality of life for the people who need them most.

Lumiio is determined to change this. Launched in 2016, Lumiio was co-founded by Dr. Lawrence Korngut, MD and Josh Lounsberry, MBA, and developed out of a lab at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute. Now in its fifth year of operations, and with connections to more than 18 countries globally,  Lumiio has doubled in size just in the last year. They are changing the way research is connecting organizations, corporations, non-profits and patients.

“Lumiio specializes in real-world data collection services that drive health outcomes,” says CEO Blaine Penny. “We hope to accelerate health outcomes through data, towards a future of personalized and predictive medicine to help improve the lives of the patients with whom we work.”

Lumiio has built collaborative data services across the world, with connections to several of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, patient organizations, and more than fifteen universities worldwide. The ability to create these health communities on a global scale assists with the challenges of researching diseases and disorders across geographic boundaries. Working on a global scale has its challenges from a regulatory, technology, and scientific standpoint. Lumiio is providing platforms and services to help health communities navigate these barriers and work towards their common purpose.

As Dr. Korngut explains, there might be 200 individuals with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) in one city, but 16,000 people with ALS worldwide. By collectively tracking the clinical trajectories of patients across multiple cities and countries, Lumiio provides a deeper understanding of various diseases, and allows development of better treatments for specific subgroups, versus if a study only focused on the limited number of affected people in one city.

By combining global data sets, and receiving study permissions from people worldwide, Lumiio allows researchers to access a broad data set and trial new treatments with a larger subset of the population. For post-secondaries like the University of Calgary, this means less time spent recruiting new study participants, and results that are applicable to wider demographics.

“Global collaboration means real and personalized impact for people living with these disorders,” say Dr. David Park, Director of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, “It is amazing to see the growth of Lumiio from the lab out into the community and now across the world.”