Alta Flora mission
At Alta Flora, our mission is to make healthcare research more open and inclusive. We want to transform medical research by making it simple and efficient to run studies.
Healthcare in its broadest terms: physical, mental and social wellbeing for the individual
Research being any systematic investigation to establish facts
Open to seek the truth, and promote trust in science and research through transparency. We endorse open standards and open science
Inclusive to address most challenging issues in healthcare research access and equity from a global perspective
Our digital health technology at a glance
We are building tools to enable researchers, producers and clinicians better understand the benefits and risks of transformative medicines for patients. Our robust, low-cost research platform called Eva Research is being built for teams anywhere in the world to use.
Eva Research is currently deployed in an MHRA-approved, open-label, phase 2 clinical trial on Long COVID, and is now being made available in a self-serve platform for any researcher around the world.
The Eva Research platform includes online enrollment for patients, digital eConsent, validated PROMs, symptom tracking and the ability for researchers to customise their own questionnaires.
Overcoming today's challenges in medical research
Equity
Breaking down barriers to patient participation as under-represented patient groups and poor data capture results in failures in healthcare for many
Disparity
Clinical trial design needs to fit into people’s lives, not the other way round
Cost
High quality data collection tools shouldn’t cost the earth, in fact they should save time and money
Areas of medical research we specifically aim to support include:
Mental Health
New areas to research in mental health include the development of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies and the prescribing of cannabinoids. Eva Research supports commonly accepted PROMS such as Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), as well as allowing researchers to define their own questionnaires.
Women's health
Women’s health is still an underfunded and stigmatised area of medical research. In fact, in 2020 fewer than one in five trial reports published in journals reported sex-disaggregated results. Additionally, research into conditions such as menstrual wellbeing, gynaecological conditions, the menopause and sexual pleasure is in its infancy and offers the potential to improve Quality of Life for half the population. Eva Research is built to support person-centric research into women’s health.
Diseases of poverty
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 10 percent of global health research is devoted to 90 percent of the global disease burden. WHO research confirms that the majority of diseases in low-income countries are caused by poverty. These diseases are known as “diseases of poverty.” Diseases of poverty affect more than 1 billion people worldwide and are completely preventable. Eva Research is being developed for global deployment to enable research for diseases of poverty
Rare diseases
Globally, there are more than 300 million people living with rare diseases and there are no approved therapies for over 90% of these disorders. Over 80% of rare diseases have a genetic basis and there is a need to share data collaboratively. Eva offers both personalised data and an open framework for researchers to work together
Repurposing of medicines
There has been a recent renaissance in herbal medicines, with the benefits of plant-based secondary metabolites becoming increasingly clear. Plants, fungi and other naturally occurring substances are emerging as powerful and potentially preventative medicines. However, these substances do not benefit from the patent-protected Big Pharma business model of synthetic molecules, and so novel research techniques are required in order to make developing organic medicines viable. Eva Research is being used to gather patient feedback in research where these novel medicines are being developed.
Meet the team
Our advisors
Dr Christian Mazzi
CEO of CORCYM. Board member and investor
Prof Michael Lynskey
Epidemiologist and Chief Research Officer at Drug Science
Dr Ilan Lieberman
Consultant in Pain Medicine and RSM Telehealth Committee council member
Dr Peter Feldschreiber
Barrister specialising in medical regulation. Ex senior MHRA medical assessor
Dr Stuart Ungar
Serial entrepreneur in the life sciences and NED at Akari Therapeutics PLC