Flatiron Health was founded in 2012 with a mission to improve cancer care through better use of data. The company built a technology platform that extracts, structures, and analyzes real-world data from oncology practices. This data helps researchers understand how cancer treatments perform outside of controlled clinical trials.
Roche acquired Flatiron in 2018 for $1.9 billion, giving the pharma giant access to Flatiron’s oncology data network. The acquisition didn’t slow Flatiron down — the company continues to operate independently and has grown its network to include data from hundreds of cancer clinics and academic medical centers.
Flatiron’s OncoEMR is an electronic health record system designed specifically for oncology practices. It captures structured data during routine care, which feeds into Flatiron’s research databases. The FDA has used Flatiron’s real-world evidence in regulatory decisions, and dozens of pharmaceutical companies rely on the platform for clinical development and post-market studies. Flatiron sits at a unique intersection of healthcare IT and life sciences, and its work has helped establish real-world data as a legitimate tool in cancer research.
