City of Hope and Reimagine Care collaborate to offer 24/7 monitoring and support to bone marrow transplant patients
LOS ANGELES and NASHVILLE, TENN. — City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, and Reimagine Care, which provides technology-enabled services to support the delivery of home-centered care, are bringing together their collective oncology expertise to implement a first-of-its kind care model at City of Hope designed to improve patient outcomes and experience for eligible blood stem cell transplant recipients. The aim of the remote patient monitoring model is to provide a seamless experience that ensures City of Hope transplant patients receive monitoring and proactive symptom management upon discharge. City of Hope is the first to offer the program in Southern California.
Reimagine Care’s program, which is staffed by oncology-trained nurses and advanced practitioners, monitors a patient’s symptoms and vital signs, proactively alerting City of Hope doctors and medical staff if a patient begins to show deteriorating vital signs or distress.
The program will first be used by eligible myeloma and lymphoma patients who receive an autologous transplant, which uses their own stem cells and can cure myeloma and other blood cancers. City of Hope will closely monitor patients’ experience with the program before offering it to more patients. If effective, the remote patient monitoring program could then be offered to all eligible transplant patients, including allogeneic patents who receive stem cells from donors.
“City of Hope is a national leader in blood stem cell and bone marrow transplants and an integral part of our success with the therapy is providing high-quality post-transplant care. Our patients will receive the same high level of care that they've always had and this collaboration is an added bonus to the exceptional care a patient already receives,” said Eileen Smith, M.D., City of Hope’s Francis & Kathleen McNamara Distinguished Chair in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. “This additional step will help us detect infection early so we can treat it and prevent any serious complications.”
City of Hope, one of the highest volume transplant centers in the nation and the largest in California, has performed more than 18,000 transplants since becoming one of the first cancer centers in the U.S. to offer the therapy in 1976.
The program uses the BioButton®, which is a painless, non-invasive device placed on a patient’s skin on the chest. Patients wear the waterproof device 24 hours a day, seven days per week for up to 30 days after an autologous transplant. The BioButton sends data to the oncology-trained Reimagine Care nurses who monitor for vital sign changes that exceed baseline levels. If the BioButton detects a change in vital signs that exceed the threshold, an alert is sent to the Reimagine Care nurses, who will contact and triage the patient.
Reimagine Care’s program comes at a time of evolving needs and preferences for patients with cancer, who are increasingly seeking a more convenient treatment experience and real-time communication with their care team. According to Reimagine Care’s 2023 Consumer Research, over 90% of patients want on-demand access to an oncology expert during their cancer journey.
Pallav Mehta, M.D., Medical Director for Reimagine Care said, "The ability to receive monitoring from the comfort of home will have a tremendous impact on a patient’s recovery. City of Hope is one of the nation’s leading cancer centers and bone marrow transplant providers. It's an honor to have the opportunity to serve their patients with 24/7, timely support that will improve the patient experience while identifying and managing symptoms more proactively, and ensuring the patient gets the right care in the right setting.”
City of Hope is an investor in Reimagine Care.
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