With the landscape of cancer care being reshaped by rising patient needs and significant workforce pressures, innovative models are emerging to bridge the gap. We are joined by Faisal Zain, a leading expert in medical technology, to discuss a pioneering partnership between Tampa General Hospital and Reimagine Care. This collaboration leverages a virtual-first approach to extend clinical support into patients’ homes, aiming to enhance care accessibility and reduce the immense strain on oncology clinicians.
The article mentions tackling rising care demands and clinician workload. Beyond these pressures, what specific challenges prompted this kind of partnership, and could you walk us through the step-by-step process of integrating a virtual support model into an existing oncology workflow?
The pressures of rising demand and clinician burnout are certainly the headline issues, but the challenges run deeper. A significant operational hurdle is managing patient care and symptoms outside of clinic hours. This often falls on oncologists, leading to what we call “pajama time”—hours spent on administrative tasks and patient messages late into the night. Integrating a model like Reimagine Care addresses this directly. The process begins by establishing them as a true extension of the cancer center. When a patient is onboarded, they are introduced to this new layer of 24/7 support. The virtual team handles the operational heavy lifting—triaging symptoms via telehealth, phone, or secure messaging—while the hospital’s clinical team remains in full control of the treatment plan. Crucially, every interaction is documented directly into Tampa General’s EHR, ensuring complete visibility and continuity of care without adding to the oncologist’s workload.
Reimagine Care states that 95% of patient concerns are resolved virtually. Could you share an anonymized anecdote of how a team might handle a late-night patient call, from the initial triage to the final documentation?
Absolutely. Picture a patient on active treatment waking up at 2 a.m. with a fever and nausea. Understandably, their first instinct might be to head to the emergency room. Instead, they contact the virtual care line. An oncology-trained nurse from the Reimagine team immediately connects with them, likely over a video call to visually assess the situation. The nurse calmly walks them through their symptoms, checks their recent vitals if available, and provides clear guidance on managing the nausea with their prescribed medication. Because they have access to the patient’s records, they can make an informed clinical judgment. In this scenario, the issue is managed at home, preventing a stressful and costly ER visit. By morning, the entire encounter—the patient’s symptoms, the nurse’s assessment, and the intervention—is meticulously documented in Tampa General’s EHR for the primary oncologist to review, ensuring seamless coordination. That’s how that impressive 95% figure becomes a reality.
The partnership has several success metrics, including reduced ER visits and a decrease in “pajama time.” How are you technically tracking these outcomes, and what kind of early feedback demonstrates the program’s initial impact?
Tracking these outcomes requires a multi-faceted data approach. For ER visits and inpatient admissions, we can directly compare the rates for the cohort of patients using the service against a baseline. It’s a clear, quantifiable metric. To measure the decrease in “pajama time,” we can analyze physician activity within the EHR, tracking the volume of inbox messages and care coordination tasks handled after standard working hours. On the patient side, we’re not just looking at satisfaction surveys; we’re monitoring engagement with the telehealth and messaging platforms and analyzing patient-reported outcomes. This combination of hard data and patient feedback gives us a comprehensive view of the program’s success, ensuring it’s not only improving efficiency but also genuinely enhancing the patient experience.
The platform is praised for its balance between an AI-forward approach and the human touch of oncology nurses. Can you describe how a typical patient interaction flows between the AI assistant Remi and a human practitioner, ensuring the experience is both efficient and reassuring?
The flow is designed to be seamless and intuitive, prioritizing both speed and empathy. A patient might initiate contact through an app where Remi, the AI virtual assistant, serves as the first touchpoint. Remi can instantly handle administrative queries or guide the patient through a structured symptom-checking process. However, the system is built to recognize key triggers. The moment a patient’s reported symptoms cross a certain clinical threshold, or if they simply type “I want to speak to a nurse,” the interaction is immediately and seamlessly escalated to a live oncology nurse or advanced practice provider. This hybrid model provides the efficiency of AI for routine tasks while ensuring that a compassionate, expert human is always available when clinical judgment or reassurance is truly needed. It’s about using technology to augment, not replace, the critical human connection in cancer care.
There are plans to expand this model across the “ontological continuum of care.” What does that look like in practice, and what are the next steps?
Expanding across the continuum means supporting a patient through their entire cancer journey, not just during active treatment. For a patient transitioning into survivorship, the platform could be adapted to focus on long-term wellness, monitoring for late effects of treatment, and providing mental health resources. For someone requiring palliative services, the focus would shift to aggressive symptom management and facilitating quality-of-life discussions. The platform is incredibly flexible. The immediate next step is to perfect the model with the current group of complex medical oncology patients. Once we’ve proven its effectiveness and ironed out the workflow, we will begin customizing the protocols and support services to meet the distinct needs of these other patient populations, creating a truly comprehensive support system.
What is your forecast for the role of AI-enabled virtual care platforms in oncology over the next five years?
My forecast is that these platforms will transition from an innovative option to a standard of care. We’ll see AI become more predictive, not just reactive, identifying patients at high risk for complications before a crisis occurs. This will be fueled by deeper integration with remote monitoring devices and wearables, creating a constant stream of real-world data. This proactive, continuous model of care will fundamentally change the patient experience, making them feel supported at all times, while simultaneously alleviating the unsustainable burden on our oncology workforce. It represents a more sustainable, patient-centered, and effective future for cancer care.
