Oncora Medical got the stamp of approval from a major cancer center

Houston-based MD Anderson Cancer Center, a medical institution on a push to eliminate cancer, just announced a Philly-based partner has joined its fight: health IT startup Oncora Medical.

The realLIST honoree and the Texas medical center will be exploring the “potential value of a combined product” between Oncora’s Precision Radiation Oncology Platform and Brocade, a software product developed by MD Anderson in 2014, according to a press release. In the first phase of the agreement, oncologists and IT staff at the Houston center will work with Oncora’s team of data scientists and engineers to install Oncora’s platform at the cancer-focused medical center.

“We’ve been in discussions with MD Anderson about a potential alliance for nearly 12 months,” cofounder David Lindsay told Technical.ly. “They have one of the largest radiation oncology practices in the country, and one of the best, so it was a natural fit for a company like Oncora that relies on large amounts of patient data to power our analytics.”

We are proud to announce our precision medicine alliance with @MDAndersonNews https://t.co/3MswxIHdoO #EndCancer

— Oncora Medical (@oncoramed) April 4, 2017

Financial terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed, but our very first question was: is this a paid deal? According to cofounder Chris Berlind, MD Anderson is not a customer. The focus is on the partnership.

“We will be collaborating to build new software (that goes beyond what we currently offer) and demonstrate its value,” Berlind said in an email.

Dr. Benjamin Smith, associate professor of radiation oncology at MD Anderson, said the partnership could be a “significant step forward for the field of radiation oncology.”

Berlind and Lindsay will stay put in Philly but will take a few trips over to Houston to work alongside MD Anderson researchers on installing the platform. The startup’s current full-time staff count is at six employees, with three open engineering positions.