Georgia Tech Expert Raises Concerns about Medical Crowdfunding for Advanced Cancer Therapies

Posted August 7, 2019

External Article: Metro Atlanta CEO

Aaron Levine, an associate professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy, was recently quoted in an article entitled “Georgia Tech Expert Raises Concerns about Medical Crowdfunding for Advanced Cancer Therapies” for Metro Atlanta CEO, August 7.

Here's an excerpt:

Personalized medicines that harness the power of our own immune cells to beat back advanced cancers offer great promise, but also raise concerns about how patients will pay for these costly therapies. A new paper from the Georgia Institute of Technology shows some patients are turning to crowdfunding.

That troubles Aaron Levine, a bioethicist in the School of Public Policy. He has written a new paper in The Lancet Oncology’s August 2019 issue examining the use of crowdfunding for a particular kind of cell-based cancer therapy.

“It’s kind of a canary in the coal mine situation,” he said. “These are highly effective therapies for very sick patients. But if patients have to deal with costs in this way when the number of people undergoing these treatments is small, what will happen when these therapies become more broadly available?

Read the full story here.

The School of Public Policy is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.