Partnership will create a real-time, secure, Rush-hosted platform that makes de-identified, multimodal clinical data research-ready to accelerate discovery and improve patient care.
CHICAGO and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Rush University System for Health (Rush) and nference, a company advancing agentic AI for biomedical discovery and healthcare superintelligence, today announced a long-term strategic collaboration to create a secure, Rush-hosted clinical analytics platform that will enable Rush researchers to more effectively analyze de-identified, longitudinal and multimodal clinical data. The agreement makes Rush University Medical Center the first Illinois-based academic medical center to partner with nference. The platform will help Rush researchers generate real-world evidence and accelerate clinical research, with the ultimate goal of translating insights into better care and outcomes for patients.
nference will architect the platform using its federated software, data harmonization and analytics infrastructure to transform de-identified structured and unstructured clinical information into curated datasets for observational studies and prospective research. The continually refreshed platform is expected to bring together longitudinal information across clinical notes, radiology and pathology imaging, laboratory tests, medications, diagnostic reports, genomics, data associated with biospecimens collected with patient consent, electrophysiology and other modalities. The multimodal data scope will encompass routine care across nearly 5 million unique patients and give researchers a more complete, computable view of de-identified, longitudinal patient journeys.
"Our goal is to give our clinicians and scientists better tools to learn from the data generated through patient care and translate those insights into meaningful improvements for the communities we serve," said Matt Walsh, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Rush. "This collaboration with nference will help our researchers ask more ambitious questions, generate evidence more efficiently and move discoveries toward clinical practice, while maintaining Rush's stewardship of the data entrusted to us."
"Clinical data is extraordinarily rich, but the signals that matter are fragmented across notes, laboratory results, images, genomics and years of patient history," said Venky Soundararajan, Ph.D., co-founder and chief scientific officer of nference. "Our federated architecture and agentic AI technologies bring the power of biomedical superintelligence to the health system partner's data environment, transforming multimodal patient journeys into an integrated foundation for scientific discovery."
As the partnership matures, Rush and nference expect the platform to enable increasingly advanced multimodal and agentic AI research, continuously transforming de-identified clinical information into new biomedical discoveries, evidence for emerging therapies, next-generation clinical trials, and measurable improvements in patient care.
About Rush
Rush University System for Health brings together the brightest minds in medicine, research and academics. Driven by discovery, innovation and a deep responsibility for the health of its communities, Rush is a national leader in outstanding patient care, education, research and community partnerships and in empowering a new generation of healthcare professionals.
Rush is a nonprofit health system that includes Rush University Medical Center, Rush University, Rush Copley Medical Center and Rush Oak Park Hospital, as well as an extensive provider network and numerous outpatient care facilities.
For more information, visit rush.edu.
About nference
nference is a company advancing agentic AI for biomedical discovery and healthcare superintelligence. Its multimodal AI technologies enable researchers and analysts to make decades of longitudinal clinical information computable across clinical notes, patient histories, laboratory results, diagnostic reports, radiology and pathology imaging, genomics, electrophysiology and all other de-identified biomedical data streams. Through long-term partnerships with leading academic medical centers and integrated delivery networks, including Mayo Clinic, Duke Health, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Emory Healthcare, Banner Health, Mercy Health and Rush University System for Health, nference builds secure, federated infrastructure that brings validated automation systems into our partner's data environments to collaboratively build the future of biomedicine.
For more information, visit nference.com.
SOURCE nference
Share this article