To reinvent cancer care, Color Health is going virtual first, AI-driven

Angus Chen covers all issues broadly related to cancer including drugs, policy, science, and equity. He joined STAT in 2021 after covering health and science at NPR and NPR affiliate stations. His work has been recognized by national Edward R. Murrow awards, the June L. Biedler prize for cancer journalism, and more. You can reach Angus on Signal at angus.08.

The way Color Health’s CEO Othman Laraki sees it, cancer has a scaling problem. New science regularly sets new standards of care, increasing the intricacy of managing an already complex illness. Cancer patients are multiplying faster than oncologists, Laraki said, and costs, too, are exploding. All this makes it difficult for everyone to receive the best possible therapy. The solution that the Silicon Valley executive sees is inevitable.

“In our mind, the only way this is going to be addressed and solved is in a virtual first, AI-driven manner,” Laraki said. “In the coming years, the biggest cancer centers will be virtual first.”

Virtual care for cancer may sound like an oxymoron. After all, the pillars of cancer treatment are almost all hands-on: surgery, radiation, infusions, and the like. But Color Health has been building out a virtual cancer clinic — including a virtual “tumor board” of multidisciplinary experts —  that the company says can deliver and manage care at a high quality. The company just received a certification from the American Society of Clinical Oncology to back it up.