CancerX, a public-private partnership focused on cancer innovation, said Friday that it has welcomed 91 founding member organizations representing payers, suppliers, pharmaceutical companies and digital health company.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health in the Department of Health and Human Services are co-chairs of the partnership with the Moffitt Cancer Center with based in Tampa, Florida and the Digital Medicine Association industry group. The partnership was announced by the White House in February as part of the Cancer Moonshot initiative, which is restarted in 2022 and aims to cut cancer mortality in half over the next 25 years.
91 organizations including providers such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, MD Anderson and City of Hope Medical Center; digital health companies such as Thyme Care and Biofourmis; insurers such as Point32Health and Elevance Health and pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca and Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.
CancerX’s work is funded through a combination of private and public funding. Each of the 91 founding members is paying different prices to join, said Jennifer Goldsack, CEO of the Digital Medicine Association. She said the federal government will provide funding for other CancerX-related initiatives.
The CancerX model builds on previous federal government public-private partnerships, such as PandemiaX, which was started in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and KidneyX, which aims to drive innovation in care. kidney. CancerX’s goals include gathering evidence and research on digital health in cancer care, establishing a startup accelerator, and leading pilot projects testing cancer technology.
Goldsack said the CancerX partnership has created partnerships with industry stakeholders looking to invest and innovate more in cancer research and care. She said that the charter for CancerX was created at the end of March and there was immediate interest.
“Look at these organizations and think how long it usually takes them to execute a contract,” says Goldsack. “They all signed that charter. This is a priority for them. They are chewing bit by bit to participate in this.
CancerX’s first project is underway, as it is developing research into how digital innovation can reduce disparities and high costs of cancer care. Goldsack said the startup accelerator will launch no later than October, and the first demonstration project will begin in early 2024.
“There will be a group that is particularly interested in shaping the accelerator, there will be a group that is particularly interested in the research program, and there will be a group that knows what data we need to get through,” said Goldsack. demonstration projects”.
Thyme Care provides care navigation for cancer patients. Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, Dr Bobby Green said the partnership with other CancerX members will give ThymeCare the opportunity to highlight the importance of improving the navigational aspect of cancer care. letters.
“When you think about [Cancer] Moonshot, has drug development and targeted therapy. But the best therapy in the world won’t work if you can’t ride to the office to get it,” Green said. “There are some very fundamental barriers to care that need to be addressed to allow all of these advances to work and impact people.”
