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Bill Bunker, CEO, Navigating Cancer“One of the biggest burdens we have alleviated for clinicians are the barriers in caring for patients after they leave the office,” says Bunker. The answer to how Navigating Cancer overcomes this hurdle lies in the company’s solution suite—Navigating Care. In an era when patient interactions have become extremely complicated, Navigating Care provides care coordination and a communication platform with embedded clinical workflows that enable more effective, scalable, and lower-cost care. “Navigation Care assures that there is a frequent dialogue between care providers and their patients,” adds Bunker.
The platform, available to oncology professionals and patients across the United States, can be used via a desktop or a mobile interface. The Navigating Care platform collects and stratifies patient needs according to severity and risk. Triage nurses can review all patients in their workflow and focus on the most pressing needs first. Nurses are able to deliver proactive and consistent care with embedded triage pathways that act as guides for symptom evaluation, and provide standing orders and interventions to streamline care.
Although the solution has a simple user-interface, the triage workboard helps escalate critical issues, provides vital patient information, and creates a way to respond to patient needs in a comprehensive way. The platform also gives patients an easy way to communicate with practitioners and get help when they need it. The internet interface of Navigating Care enables patients to get a comprehensive overview of their care and allows them to receive personalized content at appropriate intervals. This ensures that they are empowered with information about their cancer as well as knowledge that helps them manage side effects between visits.
To highlight how the platform brings patients and clinicians closer, Bunker shared an example of Navigating Care’s remote patient monitoring program. As oral chemotherapies become more widely used, it's more important to understand what's happening with cancer patients when they are away from the clinic. In addition, untreated side effects can result in expensive and disruptive hospitalizations, but with monitoring and prompt intervention, that outcome can be avoided. Navigating Cancer developed a simple digital tool that prompts patients to adhere to their oral medication regimen and report all the side effects they experience. Patients are able to report their symptoms, request medication refills, or request a call back if they have an issue to discuss with their provider. “It creates a much tighter helpline for providers in understanding their patients’ needs even outside the office. Which is vital, especially as practices respond to the new pressures created by the COVID pandemic,” says Bunker.
We create a much tighter helpline enabling providers to better respond to their patients’ needs even outside the office
To highlight how the platform brings patients and clinicians closer, Bunker shared an example of Navigating Care’s remote patient monitoring program. As oral chemotherapies become more widely used, it's more important to understand what's happening with cancer patients when they are away from the clinic. In addition, untreated side effects can result in expensive and disruptive hospitalizations, but with monitoring and prompt intervention, that outcome can be avoided. Navigating Cancer developed a simple digital tool that prompts patients to adhere to their oral medication regimen and report all the side effects they experience. Patients are able to report their symptoms, request medication refills, or request a call back if they have an issue to discuss with their provider. “It creates a much tighter helpline for providers in understanding their patients’ needs even outside the office. Which is vital, especially as practices respond to the new pressures created by the COVID pandemic,” says Bunker.
As each day passes, Navigating Cancer continues to make its platform more mobile and strives to create an increasingly personalized patient experience. The company invests heavily in expanding its capabilities in mobile technology to reduce the wait times for patients. Aiming to establish a data-driven personalized care experience, Navigating Cancer has built a platform for patients and clinicians to work together in an industry that is in dire need of value-based care.
Company
Navigating Cancer
Management
Bill Bunker, CEO, Navigating Cancer
Description
Navigating Cancer develops innovative technology solutions to improve oncology care. As the leading authority in oncology patient relationship management for the last decade, Navigating Cancer is focused on enabling personalized cancer care for every patient. The company works with thousands of cancer care providers across the country to find success as they shift to a value-based care model. Navigating Cancer provides a single, coordinated platform to deliver comprehensive cancer care for cancer patients.They engage with pharma companies and partners to ensure patients receive high quality care through data-driven insights and targeted resources.
Navigating Cancer News
Navigating Cancer Achieves Record Success in 2023 with Milestones in Innovation, Research, and Financial Growth
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON -- Navigating Cancer experienced a record year in 2023, with the launch of its new mobile-first patient portal, published research, partnership with national health payer, and highest-ever revenues.
More than 850,000 patients and caregivers utilized the Navigating Care® software to access their latest health information, communicate with their care team, submit electronic Patient Reported Outcome (ePRO) data, access relevant education materials, receive homecare instructions, and gain insights into their diagnosis, treatments, and medications. The company observed a notable increase in mobile usage of its patient portal, with mobile usage rising from 45% to nearly 70% of user sessions, attributed to a redesigned interface tailored for seamless navigation on mobile devices. Furthermore, Navigating Cancer provided timely patient education to over 125,000 patients regarding specific diagnoses or medications.
In line with its mission to alleviate the burden of cancer for patients, Navigating Cancer introduced features to better assess patient needs and facilitate prompt communication between patients and their care teams. The company continued to enhance Health Tracker, the widely deployed ePRO platform in oncology. Notably, the ASCO Quality conference in November recognized the Health Tracker solution, showcasing research co-authored by Dr. Debra Patt from Texas Oncology and Dr. Ethan Basch from the University of North Carolina. Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the research demonstrated a 39% reduction in hospitalizations, 9% fewer emergency room visits, and a 40% decrease in hospital length of stay. The study indicated that Health Tracker usage led to a monthly cost reduction of over $1,100 per metastatic cancer patient. Practices of all sizes can leverage ePROs to monitor patient feedback efficiently, enhance the quality of care, and reduce reliance on costly hospital-based services.
With the increasing adoption of ePROs and the forthcoming requirement to collect ePROs in 2025 for practices participating in the CMS Enhancing Oncology Model, Navigating Cancer plans to continually enhance the capabilities of Health Tracker and support practices in implementing these tools for patients. In 2023, Navigating Cancer upgraded the Health Tracker design to align with the new patient portal and incorporated the NCCN Distress Assessment into the Health Tracker platform, funded in part through a grant from the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Health Equity Initiative. Immediate access to ePROs is available on the Navigating Cancer Care Management dashboard, stratified by urgency levels, enabling nurses to provide immediate care to at-risk patients.
In 2023, Navigating Cancer expanded its services to work with payers in enhancing patient navigation services. The company entered into an agreement in June to provide the digital front door solution for a health payer's cancer navigation services. Eligible members gain access to secure, two-way messaging for seamless connectivity to their dedicated oncology nurse, remote patient monitoring to reduce complications, and an intelligent digital resource library personalized for each member to improve health literacy.
Looking ahead to 2024, Navigating Cancer anticipates significant growth in supporting patients, clinics, and payers. The company is proud to collaborate with over 40% of EOM participating locations and is actively partnering with these clinics to enhance its EOM and care management software offerings. Health Tracker updates in the coming year will include providing clinics with functionality to seek Medicare reimbursement using Health Tracker for Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) and Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Assessments. Financially, Navigating Cancer expects substantial revenue increases as it expands relationships with payers, clinics, life science companies, and other healthcare service organizations, enabling it to serve more patients in their cancer journey.