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Across the board, oncologists are navigating a fast-changing landscape while managing full patient loads, reimbursement pressures, and evolving care standards.
Dr. Stephen Divers
Chief medical officer
American Oncology Network
Dr. Stephen “Fred” Divers spoke with Pharmaceutical Executive about an issue that is impacting oncologists across the country: rapid change. Recent advancements in treatments and technology have created a quickly changing landscape that doctors must find ways to keep up with.
Pharmaceutical Executive: How are oncologists navigating the rapid changes in the oncology space?
Dr. Stephen Divers: It’s a constant balancing act. The pace of progress is exciting––AI, immunotherapy, precision medicine––it’s reshaping what’s possible for patients. But it also brings real complexity. Across the board, oncologists are navigating a fast-changing landscape while managing full patient loads, reimbursement pressures, and evolving care standards. Kudos to J&J for recognizing these challenges and highlighting them in the Oncology Care Index.
What’s important to highlight is that community oncology isn’t just trying to “keep up”––in a lot of ways, we’re leading the charge. Many of the networks we practice in have built sophisticated infrastructures: robust pharmacy and data science teams, tech-enabled platforms, and even large language models that auto-curate NCCN guideline updates and convert unstructured patient records into usable data for quality improvement, real-world evidence, and clinical decision support.
Staying ahead requires smart systems and strong collaboration. That’s what we’re focused on so that innovation doesn’t just happen in the lab but gets delivered consistently at the point of care to each and every patient.
PE: What barriers are preventing or slowing the adoption of new technologies?
Divers: The science is moving fast and the creation of new tools––especially digital and AI-driven ones––is enormous. But implementation is where we still find challenges. According to the Oncology Care Index, 50% of providers cited a lack of training as a top barrier to adopting AI and other digital tools, while 44% pointed to insufficient funding.
This isn’t about a lack of willingness; it’s about ensuring we have the infrastructure to scale innovation safely and equitably. The good news is many community oncology networks are actively building that infrastructure. From automated clinical pathways to advanced analytics and embedded decision support, we’re not waiting for solutions, we’re designing them.
If anything, community oncology is showing what’s possible when you empower local care with national-level innovation. The next step is making sure these advancements are supported, shared, and scaled across the broader ecosystem. Without that, even the most promising technologies risk stalling before they reach the point of care.
PE: How can oncologists find more opportunities to connect across academic and community settings?
Divers: The Oncology Care Index found nearly half of HCPs surveyed (49%) want more opportunities to collaborate with their counterparts in academic and community medical settings. This makes a lot of sense, because collaboration between community and academic oncologists is an essential piece of enhancing patient-centricity in cancer care. Patients may regularly see at least five different healthcare providers throughout their treatment journey, so it’s important that we stay connected with one another so we can give our patients the best and most coordinated care possible. This may mean creating and maintaining a strong relationship with your academic or community counterparts.
Some ways to do this beyond regular communication with our colleagues are things like knowledge-sharing platforms, participating in continuing medical education, and formal relationship-building efforts that foster regular communication and shared decision-making between providers.
PE: How can oncologists ensure equitable access to new treatments?
Divers: Clinical trials are driving oncology innovation, yet the Oncology Care Index shows that seven-out-of-10 HCPs report that their practice does not offer a robust range of clinical trial options. From my perspective, this is a really important area where we can make meaningful change, but we can’t do it alone. We need our life science partners to invest into bringing more of their trials into the community setting, and I know J&J is working on this. From an oncologist perspective, we’re using AI and other technologies to match patients to trials in real time, so that a lot of the manual labor that used to go into finding the right trials for the right patients at the right time can now happen in real time at the point of care. These are meaningful advancements that can make a difference when it comes to improving patient access to new treatments.
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