The Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA) has launched the Community Accelerated Research Exchange, a global AI-powered ecosystem designed to transform gynecologic cancer research. Built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the platform connects patients, clinicians, researchers, and advocates in real time to accelerate breakthroughs against ovarian and uterine cancers, which affect nearly 90,000 people annually in the U.S. and cause around 27,000 deaths.
The Research Exchange integrates patient-powered data, AI-enabled collaboration, and curated synthesis of emerging research to speed up discovery and improve care. At its foundation is the Living Lab, a secure patient registry capturing real-world data such as medical records, treatment side effects, quality of life, and financial impact. This feeds into the Discovery Lab, a global research environment where scientists from major and smaller institutions can access and analyze shared datasets across gynecologic cancers.
AWS provides the cloud infrastructure and advanced AI capabilities, including Amazon Bedrock, Amazon SageMaker, and AWS HealthOmics, enabling scalable data integration and analytics. AWS has also contributed $1 million in credits to support the initiative. Pharmaceutical partners such as AbbVie, AstraZeneca, GSK, and Genentech are supporting the Living Lab.
Patients can participate by contributing their experiences to the registry, helping researchers uncover patterns and improve treatments, while gaining access to tools like personalized symptom trackers. By breaking down silos and transforming isolated data into an interconnected system, the Research Exchange aims to deliver faster discoveries and bring them to patients sooner.
OCRA, the largest global organization dedicated to ovarian and gynecologic cancers, has invested $140 million in research since 1994, supports 140,000 people annually, and has helped secure $3.8 billion in federal funding. The new platform represents a major step in advancing innovation, collaboration, and patient-centered research in the fight against gynecologic cancers.
