Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Dr. Edward Kim, Vice Physician-in-Chief at City of Hope National Medical Center and Physician-in-Chief at City of Hope Orange County

Transcript

Dr. Edward Kim, Vice Physician-in-Chief at City of Hope National Medical Center and Physician-in-Chief at City of Hope Orange County · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:01
  Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings health care
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  upper right.
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  Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
• 0:40
  I'm Elizabeth Gregerson, a reporter here at Becker's,
• 0:43
  and I'm thrilled to interview doctor Ad Kim,
• 0:46
  vice physician in chief at City of Hope
• 0:49
  National Medical Center, physician in chief at City
• 0:52
  of Hope Orange County, and director of system
• 0:55
  clinical trials on the podcast today.
• 0:58
  Thank you so much for joining me today,
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  doctor Kim. I'm grateful to hear your insights
• 1:02
  with our podcast audience.
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  Yeah. Thanks, Elizabeth. It's my pleasure to join
• 1:06
  you today and, really engage with your, Becker's
• 1:09
  audience.
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  Absolutely. So before I dive into all of
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  my questions,
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  could you briefly introduce yourself and just tell
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  us a little bit about your role and,
• 1:19
  your organization?
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  Yeah. So I just go by Ed, and,
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  we,
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  I am a medical oncologist by training. I
• 1:27
  had some lung cancer and head and neck
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  cancer subspecialty. Spent a
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  lot of time doing clinical and translational work.
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  But, now
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  I have spent my most recent times, helping
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  build new hospitals.
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  I came to City of Hope about five
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  years ago to build the second campus of
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  City of Hope in Orange County. We have
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  now opened the full campus with the outpatient
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  center in 2022 and the inpatient hospital just
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  this past,
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  December
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  '25.
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  And,
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  I had a joy of recruiting over a
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  100 physicians
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  and
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  over 700
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  staff,
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  to
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  to really take care of the patients in
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  Orange County, deliver,
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  a
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  really focused area in,
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  expertise in
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  cancers,
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  clinical research,
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  and taking care of the whole person.
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  It's been a really great journey, and now
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  we're up and running. And, I have a
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  great staff and a great culture.
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  City of Hope, as you know, has been
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  around for over a hundred years, and, you
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  know, we were the origins
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  of synthetic diet you know, insulin for diabetes,
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  and as well as CAR T platforms and
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  antibody platforms and do more bone marrow transplants
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  than any other center in the country. So,
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  we have a a lot of,
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  aspects where we have deep expertise,
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  but also, what's unique about us is that
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  we are now a a an institution,
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  a cancer institution that spans a nationwide
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  network.
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  Not only do we have 30 plus sites
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  in
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  California as well as the two campuses I
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  described, Duarte as well around the Los Angeles
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  area and Irvine in Orange County,
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  but we also have,
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  campuses
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  in Atlanta,
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  Phoenix, and Northern Chicago.
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  And this has truly given us
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  a lot of opportunity
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  to create access
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  for people across the country,
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  especially
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  bringing not only our knowledge and expertise in
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  the various cancers,
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  but also opportunities for clinical research
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  and allowing participation
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  of a variety of people across the country
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  to do so. So it's a very unique
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  situation
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  that City Of Hope has right now,
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  and, it's really been
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  fulfilling
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  to help, move them in the direction,
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  where we can create,
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  opportunities for our patients.
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  Perfect. Thank you for laying that out for
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  us. I think you did such a great
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  job of not only explaining,
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  City of Hope and everything City of Hope
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  does, but kind of everything you've got your
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  hands in. I'd love to look back with
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  you for a little bit to hear maybe
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  what's the most important initiative you felt that
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  you led in the last year,
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  maybe what you did specifically to get those
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  results and what those results were as you
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  look back at 2025.
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  Yeah. 2025
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  is gonna go down as one of those
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  years where we did a lot of stuff.
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  Not only, myself, but or but City of
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  Hope did.
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  Probably one of the more national facing stories
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  was, about two years ago, I was asked
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  to become the leader of the clinical trials
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  office. We were expanding,
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  greatly in California. We had we'd opened our
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  second campus in Orange County,
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  and now we had sites across the country,
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  again, in Illinois and Georgia and and in
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  Arizona.
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  And so we needed to create a unique
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  model.
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  It's it's much easier when you have a
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  playbook out there and you can find it
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  and you can model it,
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  But there's really no other academic center that
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  in this country that has a singularly connected,
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  clinical trials footprint across multiple states.
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  And,
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  we created that.
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  It took us, about a year to fourteen
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  months to get the infrastructure in place. And
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  in March,
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  we launched our first set of clinical trials
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  that opened simultaneously
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  across
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  all these sites. So five major campuses, again,
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  in, the LA area,
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  Irvine,
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  Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, as well as any other
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  of our regional sites that exist in the
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  City of Hope network.
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  That
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  was, all covered by a single IRB,
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  single PI, single contract.
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  You know, people who, who do clinical trials
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  will know what I'm talking about here. Mhmm.
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  That is not the norm. You usually
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  open a trial at one site, at your
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  main site,
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  and then you later open them at other
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  sites. And so we were able to do
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  that simultaneously.
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  We've always had very good activation times, and
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  our trial activation time is still around ninety
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  days, which, most places, it's eight to twelve
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  months.
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  We have nearly 40 sites across the country,
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  and, really, that gives us access to
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  86,000,000
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  lives
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  within ninety minutes
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  of all of our 40 sites across the
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  country.
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  Not only has this provided
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  access, but our numbers, our metrics that we're
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  following,
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  we are consenting people into a trial within
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  the first two weeks of activation
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  and enrolling our first patient
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  within thirty days.
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  And so it truly has shown that if
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  you can
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  scale a an office,
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  provide
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  access to patients where they live closer to
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  where they live so they don't have to
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  travel long distances,
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  they will engage in clinical trials. And we
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  know that the only way we're gonna improve
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  our care, improve the standard of care,
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  is by clinical trial opportunity. So that that
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  was a big lift. We have an amazing
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  team, across the country that that really supports
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  this,
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  and it's all for our investigators.
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  Our investigators
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  are the ones that are
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  writing new studies. They're finding new studies,
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  and we wanna empower them to be able
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  to bring these studies all across the country
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  to the patients. And, again, the ultimate goal
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  is to give opportunities to patients.
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  That was one part of last year. The
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  other part was, as I said, we opened
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  our,
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  inpatient hospital here in Orange County. And,
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  you know, I had hired about 45,
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  doctors when we opened the outpatient center in
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  2022.
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  We had to more than double that. We
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  hired 50 additional
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  doctors
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  as well as 30 additional,
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  APPs on top of our 20,
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  and then again over 700 staff. So you
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  can imagine
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  the one thing that I always look at,
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  when we do that is to maintain our
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  culture.
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  People will comment how special our culture is
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  here, how people feel like they're taken care
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  of so well that everyone is friendly from
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  our front desk person to our valet
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  to our,
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  custodial service to our, you know, camp you
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  know, our our people in the cafeteria.
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  Very good. So
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  it it really has been
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  a fulfilling year,
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  not only to bring up new structures,
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  but hire new people,
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  maintain that culture, and bring expertise, cancer expertise,
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  to new parts of the country.
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  Perfect. And, you know, I always love talking
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  to leaders from City of Hope, but
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  even our audience, you know, of hospital and
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  health system leaders maybe outside of oncology, I
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  think, can relate to everything you mentioned with,
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  you know, trying to scale a new initiative.
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  Particularly clinical trials is something that I've seen,
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  you know, more health system
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  moving towards adopting their own infrastructure and then
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  also, you know, that workforce, that culture,
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  intentionally putting efforts there and,
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  with the opening of the hospital. So I
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  really am grateful for your for you sharing
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  your perspective.
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  It sounds like an exciting year, and I
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  feel like you could probably have five different
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  answers to this next question. But looking ahead
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  at 2026,
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  are there any big priorities that you're focused
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  on
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  as the year gets started?
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  I think every time we turn the calendar,
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  not the fiscal year calendar, but the,
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  the, the regular calendar into January
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  '26
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  now,
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  it it allows us to reset and refocus.
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  We should never be happy with where we
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  are. We need to continue to build momentum
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  on what we've done and continue to iterate,
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  continue to rethink,
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  reimagine
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  because we know that cancer
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  continues.
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  There are gonna be another two million people
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  diagnosed in this country with cancer this year.
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  And although we know people are living longer,
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  we know that there's still an a high
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  number of incidents that's occurring.
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  And so we have to continue
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  to think about how we can bring access
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  to these patients.
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  And one of those areas is
• 10:42
  decentralizing clinical trials.
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  We're trying to set a goal where we
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  can set up a trial
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  without having a human have to touch another
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  human.
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  So
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  utilizing remote monitoring,
• 10:55
  telemedicine,
• 10:57
  allowing laboratories to be drawn in different areas.
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  These are all things that can help the
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  patient.
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  I've been a champion for maybe over a
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  decade now. Gosh. That sounds like a long
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  time,
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  of broadening eligibility.
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  One of the things I think is so
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  silly about a clinical trial is we talk
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  about access.
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  We wanna open it in more places.
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  But if the eligibility
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  criteria
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  remain very restrictive, and there's on a median
• 11:25
  of 28 to 30 eligibility criteria per oncology
• 11:30
  clinical trial.
• 11:31
  We are excluding patients unnecessarily.
• 11:34
  And that's ironic because it's a scientific study,
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  but we're not using science to determine who's
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  eligible for these studies.
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  And I use that in a broad sense.
• 11:44
  Yes. There are some very specific criteria that
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  are absolutely needed to keep a patient safe,
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  but many of the criteria in there
• 11:52
  do not,
• 11:53
  need to be there, and they exclude patients
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  unnecessarily.
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  So we will continue to even work on
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  the protocols and push for broader eligibility
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  so people can have access.
• 12:05
  And then, yes, let's make note of the
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  time I said the word AI.
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  We always like to note when somebody likes
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  to bring that up. AI is not gonna
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  fix everything, but,
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  we do know there are some real pragmatic
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  tools
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  that that AI can help us with. And
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  we've already launched two programs,
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  within our
• 12:24
  clinical trials office to
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  utilize AI to help streamline,
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  work
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  and create efficiencies.
• 12:33
  One of them is is that we have
• 12:36
  a vast network, as I described,
• 12:38
  across
• 12:39
  four states.
• 12:40
  We can use an AI feasibility program
• 12:43
  to use eligibility criteria from our protocol
• 12:47
  and search within the electronic health record across
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  the country
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  and use that information to decide where best
• 12:54
  should we place and open these clinical trials
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  where there are more eligible patients.
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  So that's a smart way of opening trials
• 13:02
  instead of opening them everywhere and not having
• 13:05
  enrollment in places.
• 13:07
  The second
• 13:08
  tool we're using is a clinical trial matching
• 13:10
  tool. Again, taking eligibility criteria from a trial,
• 13:14
  screening our our electronic health records of our
• 13:17
  patients,
• 13:19
  and then seeing if we can find, hey.
• 13:21
  This patient may be eligible for these two
• 13:23
  trials or these three trials, or maybe we
• 13:26
  don't have a trial that they're eligible for.
• 13:28
  These are ways that are going to create
• 13:30
  workforce efficiency,
• 13:32
  allow us to scale
• 13:34
  broader and more with less resources, less human
• 13:37
  resources,
• 13:38
  but we still need those human resources to,
• 13:41
  to really conduct the research.
• 13:43
  So those are all of the
• 13:46
  things we're looking for 2026.
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  I wanna continue to see people do well,
• 13:52
  and treat them holistically,
• 13:54
  not just,
• 13:55
  try and cure their cancer, but also
• 13:58
  help calm and and heal their mind, their
• 14:02
  body, and their spirit.
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  Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. I feel
• 14:06
  like the you know, what you mentioned really
• 14:08
  does go hand in hand, you know, harnessing
• 14:11
  technology, harnessing AI
• 14:13
  to push,
• 14:14
  not the envelope, but push maybe the industry
• 14:16
  forward when it comes to clinical trial access
• 14:19
  and eligibility. So thanks for bringing that,
• 14:22
  key point up. It's something I'm definitely gonna
• 14:24
  keep my eye on to see, you know,
• 14:26
  the big move in the future in those
• 14:28
  regards.
• 14:29
  For my last question here, I kind of
• 14:31
  like to look at two sides of the
• 14:33
  same coin
• 14:35
  because it can all be good and it
• 14:36
  can all be bad. Right? So I'd love
• 14:38
  to just have that honest conversation about what
• 14:40
  is the hardest thing or the biggest challenge
• 14:43
  you think
• 14:44
  you will face in this next coming year?
• 14:46
  And at the same time, what what do
• 14:48
  you see as the best opportunity
• 14:50
  for organizational
• 14:51
  growth?
• 14:52
  You know, if we're talking in the world
• 14:54
  of medicine, there's a lot of bureaucracy.
• 14:57
  I know. I'm glad you're sitting down. I
• 14:58
  hope you're sitting down when when I said
• 15:00
  that.
• 15:01
  And whether that's through clinical trials or even
• 15:04
  trying to treat patients and getting prior authorization,
• 15:07
  there's there seems to be a lot of
• 15:09
  steps or hurdles placed in front of our
• 15:12
  providers
• 15:13
  to try and deliver the care that they
• 15:14
  want. So this will always be a challenge.
• 15:17
  We continue to try to reimagine and think
• 15:20
  outside the box because at the bottom line
• 15:22
  at the end of the day, we need
• 15:24
  to make sure the patient is safe, whether
• 15:26
  that's in the clinic or whether we're treating
• 15:28
  them on a clinical trial. So if we
• 15:30
  can still be regulatory compliant,
• 15:33
  make sure we have, integrity in our data
• 15:36
  and and what we're doing with patient safety,
• 15:39
  then we can find ways to move more
• 15:42
  nimbly,
• 15:43
  be more efficient.
• 15:45
  So this is what we I continue to
• 15:46
  challenge my team with is is that I
• 15:48
  understand this is the way you've been told
• 15:50
  to do it. Maybe you've been doing it
• 15:52
  for twenty years, but is that the way
• 15:54
  we should do it?
• 15:55
  And if we should do it a certain
• 15:57
  way, how can we go about that? So
• 15:59
  we continue to ask ourselves those questions.
• 16:01
  It is complicated
• 16:03
  running a national clinical trials network. There are
• 16:06
  different payer strategies across these four states,
• 16:09
  and there's different regulatory
• 16:11
  frameworks in all these states. And so we
• 16:13
  do have to deal with each one of
• 16:15
  these areas a little bit separately,
• 16:18
  but holistically for the same goal. And
• 16:22
  we need to continue to push,
• 16:24
  screening and prevention.
• 16:26
  It still came out in the American Cancer
• 16:28
  Society,
• 16:29
  report that in lung cancer, only eighteen percent
• 16:32
  of people are getting lung cancer screening.
• 16:34
  And so we want to push that survival
• 16:37
  further and further. And part of that is
• 16:39
  not just treating people when they have advanced
• 16:42
  disease with great therapies and great biomarkers,
• 16:45
  to help that drive that, which we have,
• 16:48
  but to screen. And so really pushing that.
• 16:51
  And then our opportunities,
• 16:53
  I think I've mentioned, this national clinical trial
• 16:56
  network
• 16:57
  is gonna be amazing.
• 16:59
  I think we have a lot of people
• 17:01
  knocking on our door trying to
• 17:03
  see how they can collaborate with us.
• 17:06
  We have we can test all types of
• 17:09
  different trials,
• 17:10
  techniques,
• 17:11
  and even, you know, current drugs in these
• 17:14
  models.
• 17:15
  And so I think our physicians, our investigators,
• 17:18
  our our scientists
• 17:19
  see this as a huge canvas
• 17:22
  in which now they can dream about implementing
• 17:25
  something quickly,
• 17:27
  efficiently,
• 17:28
  and get an answer quickly is what really
• 17:31
  we need when we're trying to test something.
• 17:34
  And by getting those answers quickly,
• 17:36
  we'll be able to fast fail
• 17:39
  or
• 17:40
  accelerate quicker based on those results. And, so
• 17:43
  I think that's why it's so important.
• 17:45
  You know, we do have a program of
• 17:48
  integrative oncology.
• 17:49
  This coming year. We're gonna scale that nationally
• 17:52
  as well. And integrative oncology takes the best
• 17:54
  of Eastern And Western Medicine
• 17:57
  and tries to treat the patient,
• 18:00
  as a complete patient.
• 18:01
  Again, not just curing the tumor,
• 18:04
  but also to heal the mind
• 18:06
  and and and lift the spirits.
• 18:08
  So we will be launching clinical trials,
• 18:11
  as well
• 18:12
  through that mechanism.
• 18:14
  And I think that's what's best for patients
• 18:16
  is that not only that we're giving them
• 18:18
  therapies to help them live longer,
• 18:20
  but we're gonna give them also techniques and
• 18:23
  trials to live their life better.
• 18:26
  Perfect. And, you know, just from my own
• 18:28
  background as a reporter on oncology,
• 18:30
  I can't tell you how many conversations I've
• 18:32
  had with oncology leaders who speak about these
• 18:35
  integrated therapies
• 18:37
  and say, well, there's no clinical trial data,
• 18:39
  but we know.
• 18:40
  You know? We know that it helps the
• 18:42
  patient. We know that it, you know, comforts
• 18:45
  them or or helps with healing. So I'm
• 18:48
  super excited,
• 18:49
  to to hear what's gonna come out of
• 18:52
  those trials, and I know the industry,
• 18:54
  for sure, will be waiting to see,
• 18:57
  see the results. So thank you for giving
• 18:59
  us a sneak peek on that.
• 19:01
  Well, I'm very excited about it. We're excited
• 19:03
  about it, and I'm excited for the patients
• 19:05
  to have that opportunity.
• 19:07
  And to your point, Elizabeth,
• 19:08
  we're gonna test it. We're gonna test it
• 19:11
  with level one data.
• 19:13
  Should we move forward, or should we put
• 19:15
  it off to the side?
• 19:16
  Right.
• 19:17
  Well, perfect. I think that's a a really
• 19:19
  hopeful, optimistic,
• 19:21
  place to end it on. I always enjoy
• 19:24
  speaking with you, and I can't thank you
• 19:25
  enough, for joining me on the podcast today.
• 19:27
  I think it's been a really amazing and
• 19:29
  and informative discussion.
• 19:31
  Well, Elizabeth, thank you for the invitation, and
• 19:33
  it's been, my pleasure. And I look forward
• 19:36
  to,
• 19:37
  seeing everyone at the Becker's meeting.
• 19:39
  Absolutely.
• 19:40
  And I invite our listeners to tune in
• 19:42
  to more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare
• 19:44
  by visiting our podcast page at beckershospitalreview.com.
• 19:49
  I hope you all have a wonderful rest
• 19:50
  of your day.