person in bed

Less than three months after raising $25 million in venture capital funding, Reimagine Care is living up to its name. Through a partnership with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, the tech-enabled oncology platform recently began delivering home-based care to a handful of bone marrow transplant patients in the Denver metro area.

Reimagine co-founder and CEO Aaron Gerber told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse if the pilot with the University of Colorado is successful, it could pave the way for home-based oncology care for a wide range of cancer patients in other cities.

Aaron Gerber, M.D., CEO of Reimagine Care
Aaron Gerber, M.D.

“With bone marrow transplant patients, it’s a little bit like the phrase if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere,” Gerber said. “These are very vulnerable complex patients who would benefit greatly from going home and staying home.”

Focus on oncology

Reimagine Care launched a little over a year ago and operates like a hospital-at-home program, but the firm’s primary focus is oncology. Bone marrow transplants are commonly performed on patients with blood cancers, such as Leukemia and Multiple Myeloma.  Patients typically remain hospitalized for a few weeks after a transplant and are at high risk for infection because of their compromised immune systems.

Patients taking part in Reimagine’s clinical trial can return home earlier and are monitored 24/7 by oncology nurses at Reimagine’s virtual care center. Remote patient monitoring is also deployed to the patients’ homes to constantly track their vital signs. The nurses will be watching closely for fevers as a sign of infection.

“There is a lot of evidence that shows that the time from the diagnosis of infection to the administration of antibiotics can have a very significant impact upon clinical outcomes, including mortality,” Gerber explained. 

Home health partnership

Home health plays a pivotal role in Reimagine’s strategy. The company partnered with a Denver home health agency to deliver IV antibiotics and other care into patients’ homes if necessary. Gerber said similar partnerships will be crucial in expanding the program down the road.

“The limitation right now is the reach of home health care,” Gerber explained. “If we have partners who serve those geographies who we think are really high quality and can work well with what we are trying to do, then there’s no reason why we can’t care for someone who receives their BMT in Cleveland or Denver and lives in Montana.” 

Gerber said the pilot should take at least a year. The partners will be evaluating potential cost savings from in-home care, clinical outcomes, as well as patient and payer satisfaction. He said the ultimate goal is to make the lives of the transplant patients and their families better during recovery.