Reimagine Care, a provider of technology-enabled services that support oncologists in delivering high-quality, home-centered, value-based cancer care, has collaborated with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CU Anschutz) to deliver care to bone marrow transplant patients. The collaboration will leverage specialized clinical technology, advanced remote patient monitoring (RPM), and Reimagine Care’s Virtual Care Center to detect infections earlier and begin life-saving treatments faster to improve outcomes and enhance patient and caregiver experience.
Bone marrow transplant patients are especially vulnerable post-transplant because their immune systems are severely compromised. Not only are these patients at high risk of infection, but they can deteriorate quickly if measures are not quickly taken to fight infections. This presents challenges for patients, families, and clinicians and can lead to poor patient outcomes and costly emergency department visits and repeat hospitalizations.
These challenges led Reimagine Care and CU Anschutz to design a clinical trial to address this opportunity for patient care improvement. The initial phase of the study, “Design of a Patient-Centered Approach to Manage Bone Marrow Transplant Patients in a Home Setting,” focuses on the feasibility of in-home RPM for early detection of febrile neutropenia, a common life-threatening complication of cancer therapy which is typically treated as an oncologic emergency. In 25 to 30 percent of patients, febrile neutropenia leads to major complications and may lead to death in approximately 10 percent of patients. Time to antibiotic administration has also been independently associated with mortality—and each hour delay in starting antibiotics can increase the risk of 28-day mortality by 18 percent.
Clinical trial patients from CU Anschutz will benefit from technology-enabled oncology care in the home. The clinical study phased approach will include RPM, predictive analytics, telemedicine, portable imaging, supportive therapies such as antibiotics and IV hydration, and 24/7/365 oversight from a team of oncology-certified Advance Practice Providers via Reimagine Care’s Virtual Care Center. The clinical trial is also significant because remote patient monitoring and virtual care reduces the amount of time that patients are away from the comfort of their homes, which can speed healing, reduce exposure to infections, improve quality of life, and reduce overall costs.
“We’re honored to collaborate with CU Anschutz to demonstrate the value of home-centered care in [bone marrow transplant] patients,” said Reimagine Care Co-founder and CEO Aaron Gerber, MD. “By measuring outcomes, along with feedback from patients, caregivers, and providers, we will demonstrate the impact of empowering patients to receive high-quality oncology care in the comfort of their homes. This is exactly the type of work that Reimagine Care is all about—and it’s a first step in changing the lives of cancer patients and their families for many years to come.”
Read the original press release here.