科技是否万能 大数据能够战胜癌症吗

Large cancer institutes such as Sloan Kettering and Mt. Sinai’s Icahn Institute are in many ways trying to do the same thing as Flatiron with their own sets of data. Those institutions are considered to have more expertise to deal with the data; Flatiron’s fundamental position is that the use of only one institution’s data, however large, is insufficient to fully address the problem.
像斯隆o凯特灵和西奈山伊坎研究院（Mt. Sinai’s Icahn Institute）这样的大型癌症研究机构也在很多方面想利用自己的数据积累开展和Flatiron一样的业务。人们认为这类机构有更多懂得数据处理的专家，而Flatiron的主要问题是它只能用一个机构的数据。不管这个数据量有多大，都不足以解决问题。

It’s the same issue at hand with exploiting electronic medical records overall, said Alan Louie, research director with IDC’s Health Insights group.
IDC公司Health Insights集团的研究总监阿兰o路易称，要深入研究所有电子病历也存在这个问题。

“The fact that you have the data all in one place is one thing, but whether you can make it usable effectively is another,” Louie said. “You have to really combine the bioinformatics with a knowledge of cancer and the manifestation of the disease.”
路易称：“把所有数据集中到一起是一回事，能否有效利用它们却是另外一回事。必须能把生物信息学和对癌症及症状的深入了解结合起来才行。”

The large cancer institutes may have more limited data sets, given that they don’t aggregate data from a variety of sources the way Flatiron does, “but I’d argue the researchers there may be more aware of the subtleties of genomics and probably can analyze the data more effectively,” he said.
大型癌症研究机构可能数据量相对有限，因为它们没法像Flatiron那样从多种渠道收集数据，他说：“但我认为这些机构的研究人员可能更懂得深奥的基因组学，也可能更有效地分析数据。”

There are other EMR systems that Flatiron competes with, Turner says, such as Epic. But for analytics, “I honestly haven’t seen too many,” he said. “Maybe Microsoft Excel.”
特纳称，在电子病历系统上Flatiron公司也是有对手的，如Epic。但就这些病历的分析来说，他表示：“我还真没看到多少对手，也许微软公司（Microsoft）的Excel算一个。”

IBM is also a player, but “they’re very geared toward the top one percent and focused on decision support,” Turner said. The American Society of Clinical Oncology’s CancerLinQ is another.
IBM公司同样也是对手之一，但“它们主要致力于为1%的客户服务，并专攻决策支持，”特纳称。而美国临床肿瘤协会（American Society of Clinical Oncology）的CancerLinQ算另一个。

Forrester’s Snow saw it differently. “Flatiron is more like an information service provider and less like a Sloan Kettering or Icahn,” he said. “The Sloan Ketterings and Icahns are saying, ‘We are the centers of excellence, the creators of the protocols and the content, and we will sell you the license to have access to our model of excellence.’ “
不过斯诺的看法有所不同。他说：“Flatiron更像是个信息服务提供商，而不像斯隆o凯特灵和伊坎这类专业研究机构。而斯隆o凯特灵和伊坎会说‘我们是专业卓越的中心，行业标准的起草者，我们为您提供授权，使您也能用上我们的卓越模式。’”

Flatiron, on the other hand, “wants to be the Lexis-Nexis of cancer,” Snow said. “Aggregate the data, store it, and license it to the community with tools so you can ask the questions you need to ask.”
而另一方面，斯诺表示，Flatiron的目标是“在癌症研究领域成为像Lexis-Nexis（美国顶级商业与法律数据库——译注）一样的顶级数据库。它主要业务就是收集数据、存储数据，再将数据和相关工具授权给相关研究机构，使其能咨询相关问题。”

Which means the company is better suited to compete with Bloomberg, Lexis-Nexis (owned by Reed Elsevier), IMS Health, and Thompson-Reuters rather than organizations trusted on the subject on cancer like Sloan Kettering.
这意味着这家公司更核实的竞争对手是彭博社（Bloomberg）、Lexis-Nexis【隶属于里德爱思唯尔集团（Reed Elsevier）】，IMS Health和汤普森路透（Thompson-Reuters），而不是斯隆o凯特灵这类专攻癌症研究的机构。

“I think they absolutely can succeed against those who sell information as a service,” Snow said. “That’s the landscape they can prevail in, and that’s the landscape where the incumbents are moving slowly, especially in health.”
斯诺称：“我想该公司肯定能胜过那些信息销售服务商。这将是他们能纵横驰骋的领域，而目前这个领域的巨头进展缓慢，尤其是在医疗健康领域。”

“Flatiron’s trick is they’re little, nimble, and smart,” he said, “and with $100 million, they can probably recruit good talent.” Which is exactly what Turner said he plans to do.
他说：“Flatiron的优势在于他们规模不大，聪明灵活。有了这一个亿，他们可能还能招到更出色的人才。”而这正是特纳的计划。