Canopy works with leading oncology practices nationwide to drive the best possible outcomes for over 50,000 cancer patients
Canopy, an ‘Intelligent Care Platform’ (ICP) for oncology, announced it has raised $13 million in funding led by GSR Ventures, with participation from Samsung Next, UpWest, and other industry leaders and executives, such as Geoff Calkins (former SVP Product, Flatiron Health), and Chris Mansi (CEO Of Viz.AI). Formerly known as Expain, Canopy is also launching out of stealth today to make its platform generally available to cancer treatment centers across the U.S.
Due to the brief and episodic nature of office-based cancer care, up to 50 percent of patient symptoms and treatment side-effects will go undetected. This often leads to avoidable hospital visits and a poor experience, and more importantly, may result in detrimental treatment discontinuations, hurting patients’ survival probability. This has been exacerbated during the pandemic as oncologists have relied on spreadsheets, phone calls, and other manual processes that are inefficient, costly, and unsustainable. Studies show that remote monitoring of patients receiving cancer treatment leads to improved quality of life, satisfaction, and overall survival, but providers lack the tools to deliver remote and proactive care.
Canopy flips that model on its head by enabling physicians to interact with their patients continuously and proactively. Canopy’s Intelligent Care Platform includes a full suite of intelligent, electronic health-record integrated tools to help cancer centers continuously engage with their patients, streamline clinical workflows, and capture new reimbursement streams for their meaningful work. As a result, care teams can better direct resources from repetitive manual work to supporting the patients who need them most, leading to improved patient outcomes at lower costs.
“We have been early believers in the need for software to enable proactive patient care,” said Justin Norden, MD, Partner at GSR Ventures. “Canopy stood out as a leader through its rigorous focus on improving clinical outcomes, and, notably, significant improvements can already be seen in thousands of patients. We look forward to the next phase of this partnership as Canopy reaches new heights in helping deliver real-world, positive outcomes to patients and their families.”
Working with leading oncology practices nationwide, Canopy’s platform has demonstrated high rates of patient enrollment (86 percent), engagement (88 percent), retention (90 percent at 6 months), and timely nursing intervention rates (88 percent). Canopy has clinical results slated for publication in 2022 demonstrating reductions in emergency department utilization and inpatient admissions, as well as increases in time on therapy.
“Oncology practices have been using manual processes in an effort to improve patient care for over 20 years, and have had very little impact on practice efficiency, or patient outcomes,” said Michael Kolodziej, MD, Head of Medical Oncology at Canopy. “The systems we’ve been using were created to optimize documentation and billing, and it’s time we had a software platform built for care. Canopy does just that by enabling providers to deploy life-saving interventions in a scalable way, build deeper relationships, and proactively care for patients.”
Canopy is the preferred vendor for the Quality Cancer Care Alliance (QCCA) and works with leading oncology practices across the country, including Highlands Oncology Group, Northwest Medical Specialties, Los Angeles Cancer Network, Cancer and Hematology Centers of Western Michigan, and Tennessee Cancer Specialists (TCS).
“We have seen our patients and providers truly embrace Canopy’s technology and it has led to a closer relationship with our patients,” said Jeff Hunnicutt, CEO of Highlands Oncology Group. “Having a proactive tool like Canopy removes barriers to care and allows patients to feel safe and share potentially serious symptoms that they may otherwise have not otherwise disclosed, and us, as a practice, to offer them timely support. This higher level of trust and communication is a subtle, but powerful paradigm shift that we’ve seen lead to dramatically improved outcomes for our patients.”
“Canopy’s mission is to provide every person undergoing cancer treatment with the best possible outcomes and experience,” said Lavi Kwiatkowsky, founder and CEO of Canopy. “We have already demonstrated in cancer treatment centers across the US that a proactive care delivery model is not only possible but effective. Now, we are focused on expanding our presence nationwide while increasingly deploying artificial intelligence to maximize the benefits we deliver to patients and their care teams.”
Kwiatkowsky founded Canopy in 2018 after a personal encounter with the healthcare system highlighted the challenges created by today’s episodic care, particularly in complex disease areas such as oncology. Through the process, he realized that care teams are inundated with information, tasks, and challenges, limiting their ability to adopt important technologies to improve care. That experience led to Canopy’s key insight: “in order to help patients, you need to help the practice first.” Prior to founding Canopy, he spent the past 16 years of his career in an elite Israeli intelligence unit, and later in Israeli startups, leading large-scale projects relating to data processing, AI, and machine learning.