City of Hope’s Harlan Levine talks about transforming cancer care | HLTH 2024

Las Vegas - City of Hope has been taking some bold steps as it looks to expand access to high-quality cancer care.

The health system, based in Los Angeles, has expanded its footprint in other states, including the acquisition of the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in February 2022. City of Hope has also developed AccessHope, a spinoff company that connects cancer experts with other organizations and health plans.

Harlan Levine, MD, the president of health innovation and policy at City of Hope, appeared at the HLTH conference to talk about cancer care.

He also sat down with Chief Healthcare Executive for a conversation about City of Hope, expanding care, and the potential of AI. In this video, Dr. Levine talks about AccessHope; the story continues below.

Incorporating Cancer Treatment Centers

With the acquisition of Cancer Treatment Centers, City of Hope added oncology hospitals in Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix and five outpatient treatment facilities.

Now, patients in those markets have greater access to clinical trials, Levine says.

“Sometimes the best opportunity for a patient is to get on a clinical trial,” Levine says. “These clinical trials are not the clinical trials of 20 years ago. These are generally very targeted … and applying solutions that have worked in similar situations, and then with precision, putting people on trial to seek to improve their care. And if you don't have clinical trials available, you just don't have that opportunity.”

“So we're broadening the access to communities that really haven't had the access,” Levine says. He notes that the facilities are located in communities slightly outside the academic hub.

Plus, those markets are now getting access to better specialized care. He said that’s important as cancer becomes more complex.

“If you don't have access to that specialized care, you're not going to get the optimal care,” Levine says.

He also talked about the value of the collaborations now taking place between the top specialists at City of Hope working in support of the physicians in those newer markets.

AccessHope

The spinoff company developed by City of Hope is seeing impressive success, and Levine says there’s more to come.

City of Hope doctors share their expertise with treating oncologists in the community and can help assist in diagnosis and treatment plans. AccessHope also offers its services to health plans and employers.

To meet the growing demand, AccessHope’s network now includes seven National Cancer Institute-designated centers, including the addition of UT Southwestern Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center in June. Other partners include the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Johns Hopkins Medicine. Levine says bringing other cancer centers into the network was necessary.
“The volume got to the point where it was going to be too much for any one institution,” he says.

AccessHope has been brokeing more agreements with employers, including more than 60 Fortune 500 companies.

“We have over 420 employers at the current time, covering over 7 million lives,” Levine says. “It's been growing every year. It's going to grow explosively again in calendar year 2025, as we've signed many more clients.”

Levine cites the value of working with community oncologists and other health operations, as opposed to competing with the oncologist.

“We find issues where we can improve the care approximately nine out of 10 times on these cases that we identify, and about 88% of the time the doctors take our advice,” Levine says. “The key is we're using technology and AI to identify the complex cases that we believe will be most impactable, and that's why we're having such a high yield and having such a high impact for the employers and the health plans.”

AI and cancer care

When asked about AI’s potential in improving cancer care and balancing the hype with genuine promise, Levine says, “I think AI is going to make a huge difference.”

He points to a memorable moment from the Eagles’ concert at The Sphere Saturday night, just before the start of the HLTH conference.

“Joe Walsh said that he was a 20th century rock and roll star in a 21st century arena. I don't want to be a 20th century physician,” Levine said.

City of Hope and other health systems are already using AI. He pointed to the use of AI in genomics to process all the data and understand the correlation between mutations. “That'll continue, and I think we'll get more and more precise with that,” he said.

In the research laboratory, AI is used to understand the configuration of proteins. Operationally, AI helps support revenue cycle management.

And AI is already being utilized to improve patient care, he notes.

“We use it clinically. We have identified people in the hospital who are at high risk of developing sepsis,” Levine says. “We can identify people using AI, who are at high risk of having poor outcomes, which allows us to increase the intensity of our services.”

Levine doesn’t see AI putting physicians out of work.

“It is not going to replace the doctor,” Levine says. “I think it will help assist doctors in making decision.”