Reimagine Care — an in-home cancer care enabler — announced Tuesday that it received an investment from Memorial Hermann Health System. The investment lends even more credence to at-home cancer care as an emerging service line.

Reimagine Care declined to disclose the terms of the investment.

Memorial Hermann joins the ranks of the company’s current institutional investors: Santé Health, Martin Ventures, LRV Health and Sable Investments. Reimagine Care’s strategic investors also include City of Hope, McKesson Ventures and Colorado University Anschutz Medical Campus.

The home health provider AccentCare also recently formed a joint venture partnership with Memorial Hermann.

“To have an organization like Memorial Hermann fully aligned with our belief that cancer care can and should be moved into the home is really rewarding and encouraging,” Reimagine Care CEO Dan Nardi told Home Health Care News. “We’re very excited for the potential that they see in Reimagine Care, and the impact we’ve already had on their existing patient population.”

Nashville-based Reimagine Care provides technology-enabled services to health systems and oncologists to help them deliver at-home, value-based cancer care.

The investment from Memorial Hermann Health System falls in line with the increased demand for at-home care from cancer patients.

Specifically, 82% of cancer patients want to receive care in their homes, and more than 90% would like on-demand access to an oncology expert, according to data from Reimagine Care’s 2023 Consumer Research.

This demand is being driven from a number of different factors.

“Care in the home, and virtually, was really turbocharged during the pandemic,” Nardi said. “We’re seeing that there’s a lot of patients that want to continue that, even as the pandemic has really wound down. Patients are starting to return to getting their care in the clinic, but we’re really seeing the push to provide additional services, treatments and care in the home.”

Another factor that is contributing to the demand for at-home cancer care is how thin the health care system is currently being stretched, according to Nardi.

“We don’t have the capacity to be able to serve as many patients as possible in a clinic with the highest possible quality,” he said. “We need to develop the solutions to be able to provide the highest quality care in the home, and virtually, to augment the existing care that we already have in the clinic and hospital. That’s really a big part of why Reimagine Care is here — to be that extension of the existing oncology team.”

Memorial Hermann Health System’s investment into Reimagine Care will accelerate the company’s growth efforts.

“This helps fuel our continued growth, as we’re continuing our expansion and opportunities to continue to sell and expand into new markets, new product features,” Nardi said. “That’s what this is really allowing us to do.”

Nardi does foresee possible headwinds that may have an impact down the road, however.

“Some of it is regulatory, especially when we’re getting into the treatment aspect – the home infusions – and some challenges around being able to really provide that home delivery of certain medications, that’s a challenge at the moment,” he said.

Nardi also pointed out that a larger cultural shift still needs to take place at some of the larger institutions.

“At the larger organizations — the largest health systems and the largest payers — it just takes a long time to be able to introduce new solutions, like Reimagine Care, or others, into this existing ecosystem of health care delivery in the United States,” he said.

Ultimately, Nardi believes that Reimagine Care is well-positioned to lean into the tailwinds resulting from the pandemic.

“This ability to get treatment in the home is brand new, and it’s never been done at scale,” he said. “It’s in the best interest of the long-term sustainability of our health care system to be able to find ways to deliver care in a home that’s extremely high quality and cost effective.”