The ORBIT program creates a repository of lab specimens and electronic health records that researchers worldwide can use when they are conducting clinical trials.
Aurora patients volunteer to have blood samples left over from their lab tests sent to the ORBIT center. Eventually, other specimens, such as saliva or tissue, also will be collected. At the center, a robot from the Swiss firm Tecan Group Ltd. extracts DNA from the specimens, identifies it with a bar code and stores it in a freezer that holds up to 77,000 vials.
The bar codes enable the linking of the specimens to each person's electronic record without identifying personal information. The records will be updated each time the patient returns to Aurora for treatment. Aurora uses inpatient and outpatient records software from Cerner Corp., Kansas City, Mo.
The delivery system, which operates 13 hospitals and 120 clinics in Wisconsin, initiated the project at its Milwaukee facilities and eventually will expand it to all sites. It expects the first researchers to start using the ORBIT center later this year. As of April, ORBIT already contained more than 2,000 samples for patients with cardiovascular disease.
Executives hope the ORBIT program will enable researchers to move toward personalized medicine, which involves creating drug or drug combinations specifically for an individual's needs, says Randall Lambrecht, Aurora's vice president of research.
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