NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The Open Medicine Institute said today that its nonprofit arm, the Open Medicine Foundation, has received a grant from the VMware Foundation, the philanthropic branch of the cloud computing company. The award includes both financial and consulting support.
OMI said it will use the donation to support the development of its new healthcare model, which integrates its open-source platform, genomics, clinical expertise, and social networking to study neuro-immune diseases and other complex diseases including Parkinson's disease, autism, Lyme disease, and multiple sclerosis.
OMI has a clinical research facility in Mountain View, Calif., near El Camino Hospital, that includes a research space and genomics, biotechnology, and informatics cores, as well as a physiology lab.
The institute uses a technology that it developed called OpenMedNet, which facilitates sharing of patient-consented and HIPAA-compliant information that enhances its collaborations with physicians, academic centers, labs, and large health systems, OMI said.
"We are looking forward to collaborating with [VMware's] technology experts on the development of a new personalized medicine infrastructure that will improve patients’ health outcomes and experiences," OMI Founder Andy Kogelnik said in a statement.
OMI said the donation was the first the VMware Foundation funded under its Group Gigs and Grants program. The value of the award was not disclosed.