From Data to Discovery: Leveraging Palantir Foundry for Lung Cancer Research

The Challenge

A research division within a global biopharmaceutical corporation—at the forefront of lung cancer research—was conducting pivotal clinical trials and managing an enormous volume of complex medical data. This included over 100GB of imaging data (radiology, pathology, ECG) from a variety of source systems.

Despite their scientific expertise, the client struggled with data fragmentation, siloed repositories, and labor-intensive workflows. Key research functions like cohort creation, specimen tracking, and analytics were slowed by inconsistent data standards and lack of real-time access. Without a scalable system to ingest, clean, model, and securely govern this data, researchers faced major barriers to discovery. The organization needed a flexible yet powerful platform to support research agility, regulatory compliance, and innovation at scale.

The Solution:

Launch implemented a robust, end-to-end data foundation using Palantir Foundry—tailored specifically for clinical research and biomedical data complexity. Our approach followed a multi-phase process:

1. Data Consolidation & Foundation

We began by centralizing all relevant data—medical imaging, pathology reports, ECG data, and more—into a single project environment within Palantir Foundry. This formed the backbone for dataset generation, ontology development, and scalable storage that could grow with the research program.

2. Advanced Data Transformation & Automation

We engineered PySpark ETL pipelines to transform raw, unstructured data into a standardized, structured format. These pipelines were automated to support continuous data integration, ensuring up-to-date datasets with minimal manual effort.

3. Ontology Development for Research Modeling

Working closely with domain experts, we developed a robust ontology that accurately reflected the real-world medical entities, relationships, and terminologies specific to lung cancer research. This allowed for intuitive querying, deeper insights, and easier integration of future datasets.

4. Application & Dashboard Development

Launch built user-centric applications and dashboards to meet diverse research needs—from exploratory data analysis to operational decision-making. Every tool was designed with UX best practices, allowing non-technical users to navigate complex datasets with confidence.

5. Governance & Collaboration Enablement

To support secure and ethical data usage, we implemented a comprehensive Data Governance Management System, ensuring regulatory compliance (e.g., HIPAA) and promoting trust in data access, lineage, and usage policies.