Staying True to Your Mission During a Pandemic

In the early stages of the pandemic, CareDx recognized the challenges that transplant patients would face and we committed ourselves to staying true to the company’s mission to remain focused on improving patient care – regardless of the uncertainty ahead for the entire healthcare industry. We realized that if we didn’t rise to the occasion during this time of fear and uncertainty, not only would the health our patients potentially be in jeopardy, but the trust that they have come to put in us would be irradicably damaged.
 
I am proud to say that remaining committed to the transplant community has led to unexpected growth and a new direction for our company. We have been resilient with strong execution and seen continued growth of our innovative solutions for transplant patients and caregivers.
 
Four of our greatest achievements during this time, include:
 
1. Launching RemoTraC Home-Based Blood Draw Service
Transplant patients require frequent blood tests which normally require in-person visits to draw sites at labs or hospitals. In close coordination with transplant centers, we announced the launch of RemoTraC in March 2020, which is a remote home-based blood draw solution using mobile phlebotomy for AlloSure and AlloMap surveillance tests, as well as for other routine transplant tests. By reducing visits to busy labs and hospitals, immunosuppressed transplant patients at the highest risk during the COVID-19 pandemic can limit their potential exposure.
 
This program quickly scaled up to include more than 10,000 phlebotomists who were able to conduct at home blood draws through a partnership with a fast network of mobile phlebotomy providers.
 
In order to meet current needs, our business has expanded our testing capabilities as we see more transplant centers move from in-office biopsies to home based blood draws using AlloSure and AlloMap.
 
2. Establishing a COVID-19 Transplant Registry
During this time of uncertainty, there is limited data on the impact on immunosuppressed transplant recipients who contract COVID-19. In response to this, in April 2020, CareDx proudly announced the COVID-19 Transplant Registry (C19TxR.org), to support the transplant community through its Ottr platform. The registry site is free to use, open access, and web-based, with a real-time analytics dashboard for users to quickly engage in best practices for COVID-positive transplant patient management. An international consortium has rapidly come together to centralize global data and insights on transplant patients with COVID-19.
 
3. Utilizing Virtual Solutions for Transplant Community to Remain Connected and Informed
In order to help elevate conversations and provide resources to the transplant community about the COVID-19 pandemic, we partnered with leading transplant organizations, such as the National Kidney Foundation, Transplant Recipients International Organization, and the American Association of Kidney Patients to develop a series of virtual patient events surrounding the changes in the transplant landscape in response to the coronavirus. Recently CareDx hosted a virtual conversation with Oscar Munoz, the chairman of United Airlines and heart transplant recipient, on Airtravel for Transplant Patients.
 
On September 26, we will be hosting the AlloCare Transplant Festival to bring the transplant community together for a fun and interactive social event.
 
4. Fostering Long-Term Partnerships and Expanding our Business Development E-Suite
We have always sought ways to collaborate and partner with the broader transplant community and we currently provide grants to the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS), American Society of Transplantation (AST), and National Kidney Foundation for furthering research and education.
 
We have partnered with several other companies to enhance our testing services. CareDx and Johns Hopkins University announced the launch of the ALARM (AlloSure Lung Allograft Remote Monitoring) Partnership. We have also partnered with Cornell to commercialize the UroMap test, a gene expression profile test from a kidney transplant patient’s urine sample.
We recently hired business development professionals to drive key partnerships as we remain open for business to new opportunities. We look forward to continuing to build out our offerings in testing services and digital transplant solutions.
 
We realize the new era of COVID-19 impacts the immune-compromised transplant community significantly. As we continue to prove, CareDx remains committed to the goal of evolving our business to meet the needs of transplant patients across the world and are confident in our continued focus on innovation and growth.
 
My parting advice to other precision medicine companies both now and the months ahead would be to stay true to your mission and bring your teams together to come up with strategies that get you closer to patients that access health services remotely.