Infosys partners University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for precision medicine

IT services major Infosys on Thursday announced a strategic partnership with University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to develop new technologies and systems in precision medicine.

Through this partnership, Infosys has also become a member of the Centre for Computational Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine (CCBGM), a statement said.

The adoption of new technologies by healthcare companies has significant benefits, including allowing caregivers to predict patients' diseases and control prohibitive healthcare costs, in turn benefiting both patients and healthcare companies.

"This partnership will combine Infosys' strength in advanced machine learning, its artificial intelligence capabilities through the Infosys Nia platform, with UIUC's expertise in computing systems, bioinformatics and genomic applications, to improve preventive care and enhance predictability of treatment outcomes of potential diseases," it said.

The partnership between Infosys and UIUC along with membership in CCBGM opens up a lot of potential for Infosys' work in the healthcare industry, Infosys Senior Vice President and Head of Healthcare Venky Ananth said.

"Not only do we have an opportunity to develop technologies and solutions that can improve and enhance patient care and management, but we also get a chance to collaborate with some of the finest minds on the new frontiers of healthcare innovation," he added.

The future of precision medicine, which allows tailoring diagnosis and treatment to each patient in order to optimize outcome, is dependent on the ability to jointly analyse large data sets of heterogeneous biological and clinical measures while incorporating key clinical domain knowledge, Professor Ravishankar K Iyer, Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Illinois and CoPI of the CCBGM.

"This is a complex challenge and will require innovations in both data-driven analytics and system design to succeed," he added.