Scaled clinical Patient Reported Outcomes Platform to more than 1,000 active patients
Deployed a secure and easy-to-use cloud-based clinical study system
Secured a breakthrough research presentation at the ASCO symposium
Expanded adoption across multiple hospital sites
Breast Cancer Canada partnered with CloudifyAI to build a secure, Google Cloud-powered analytics platform that turns long-term patient-reported insights into data-backed healthcare policy and clinical advances.
Breast Cancer Canada partnered with CloudifyAI to build a secure, Google Cloud-powered analytics platform that turns long-term patient-reported insights into data-backed healthcare policy and clinical advances.
Lifting patient voices and care with
tech-based clinical rigor
Breast Cancer Canada (BCC) is a national charity driven by a singular, vital mission: to incorporate patient voices into every aspect of medical research, screening, and treatment. Operating under the core philosophy of "not about the patient without the patient," BCC uses real-world patient experiences to advocate for change and shape clinical approaches.
Historically, gathering patient-reported outcomes yielded disjointed snapshots rather than truly connected, long-term insights. When a survivor's active oncology treatment ended, they often transitioned to seeing general practitioners who lacked deep context regarding long-term side effects like heart complications or lymphedema. This leads to a blind spot in the longitudinal data points so vital to research, therapies, and more.
To bridge this critical knowledge gap, BCC introduced an early tracking initiative. However, the application ran on antiquated university data centers using older software. The infrastructure lacked performance, scalability, and the advanced tools to analyze data and generate comprehensive reports to shape treatments and government policy.
"We strive to combine data-backed advocacy with clinical rigor through a platform that doesn't just collect information but also forces systemic changes, shapes federal health policies, and fundamentally improves lives worldwide," says Kimberly Carson, CEO of Breast Cancer Canada.
As a charitable organization, BCC possessed neither the internal technical personnel nor the expansive budgets required to construct a modern data environment from scratch.
Most critically, clinical studies in Canada have to adhere to strict ethical review guidelines regarding storing and auditing patient data. Without a hyper-secure, approved cloud environment, BCC’s collected insights would be relegated to the academic status of an unverified online survey rather than actionable medical evidence that could change legislative policy.
"Everything we do is about the patient," says Carson. "We needed an ethics-approved, secure environment to turn lived experiences into rigorous data to clear up healthcare inaccuracies that can change public policy."
We strive to combine data-backed advocacy with clinical rigor through a platform that doesn't just collect information but also forces systemic changes, shapes federal health policies, and fundamentally improves lives worldwide.
Kimberly Carson
CEO, Breast Cancer Canada
Advanced data mining to enhance patient treatments
BCC brought on dedicated technology leadership and selected Google Cloud as its long-term IT infrastructure. The choice was driven by Google Cloud's elite technical suite and an attentive, professional partner ecosystem.
BCC engaged CloudifyAI to architect a foundation capable of scaling on demand. Working with highly collaborative, weekly agile development cycles, CloudifyAI tailored the environment to accommodate BCC's tight resource constraints and rapid timelines.
The underlying architecture relies extensively on Google Cloud BigQuery, providing the scalability to handle an enormous influx of multi-point datasets as patients answer hundreds of comprehensive questions quarterly.
To keep patients engaged over a ten-year study, CloudifyAI implemented a responsive React front-end. This delivered a seamless, modern user experience across mobile devices, tablets, and desktops, resolving the performance lag of the legacy platform.
The cloud framework successfully powered PROgress Tracker 2.0, making it Canada's first cloud-hosted, ethically approved clinical study. Expanding on this foundation, BCC and CloudifyAI introduced "CONNECT," an AI-enabled application designed to reduce patient anxiety immediately following a diagnosis.
Patients upload detailed pathology reports directly into CONNECT, where Google Cloud AI tools execute advanced document interpretation and optical character recognition (OCR) to translate clinical terms into plain language. CONNECT generates tailored treatment timelines and separates specific questions for patients to ask surgeons versus medical oncologists, optimizing limited appointment windows.
Additionally, BCC used Gemini Notebook to parse internal educational materials, instantly producing highly readable, graphically clear, and scientifically sound patient roadmaps.
"CloudifyAI and Google Cloud delivered an agile, highly secure architecture," says Alex Topitsch, CTO of Breast Cancer Canada. "By mining massive datasets with BigQuery and using AI to simplify complex pathology reports, we directly ease patient anxiety when they need it most."
CloudifyAI and Google Cloud delivered an agile, highly secure architecture. By mining massive datasets with BigQuery and using AI to simplify complex pathology reports, we directly ease patient anxiety when they need it most.
Alex Topitsch
CTO, Breast Cancer Canada
Scaling the future of data-backed patient advocacy
Implementing Google Cloud and CloudifyAI technologies has resulted in tremendous benefits. PROgress Tracker 2.0 quickly surpassed 1,000 active participants, with enrollment projected to scale up to 10,000 users within the next 18 months.
The credibility of this secure, ethically compliant data environment has allowed BCC to achieve global academic validation, including publishing a breakthrough presentation at the prestigious American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) symposium.
"Running an ethically approved cloud clinical study requires absolute security," says Carson. "Google Cloud and CloudifyAI took us away from antiquated infrastructure and gave us the global credibility required to publish our findings at major international symposiums like ASCO."
Major Canadian medical institutions, including multiple hospital sites, are now signing on to adopt BCC's software as their internal standard for gathering patient-reported information.
BCC is poised to expand its technological capabilities through a deeper relationship with Google Health. The organization has already architected a roadmap to integrate Fitbit wearable technologies into PROgress Tracker, allowing real-time clinical vital metrics to merge with qualitative survey results.
BCC is also in discussions with the Canadian government to use its database as a national registry to accurately track and quantify metastatic breast cancer recurrence risks across the country. Backed by Google Cloud and CloudifyAI, BCC is demonstrating that advanced technology can amplify human voices to alter the course of medicine.
"By partnering with CloudifyAI and Google Cloud, we can turn patients’ shared lived experiences into validated, ethically approved data," says Carson. "The infrastructure allows us to go to policymakers with hard evidence to dismantle assumptions, change the healthcare system, and drive real legislative policy."
By partnering with CloudifyAI and Google Cloud, we can turn patients’ shared lived experiences into validated, ethically approved data. The infrastructure allows us to go to policymakers with hard evidence to dismantle assumptions, change the healthcare system, and drive real legislative policy.
Kimberly Carson
CEO, Breast Cancer Canada
Breast Cancer Canada is a national charitable organization dedicated to funding breast cancer research and advocating for systemic healthcare reform. The organization operates under a patient-first philosophy, ensuring that real-world lived experiences are integrated into every aspect of medical screening, detection, and treatment.
Industry: Non-Profit
Location: Canada
Products: BigQuery, Gemini Notebook, Pub/Sub, Cloud Run, Google Apps Script, Cloud Logging, Cloud Monitoring
About Google Cloud partner – CloudifyAI
CloudifyAI is an expert technology consulting and engineering firm combining AI systems integration with intelligent automation platforms to accelerate digital transformation and unlock business insights for customers.
