Oncology Ventures: Announces Investment into Tono Health + Fantasy Football Comedy
Investing in healthcare data startups that enhance cancer care and research.
Current State of OncoDermatology
Cancer care faces a significant and overlooked challenge: cutaneous toxicity from novel immunotherapies, meaning patients experience a range of skin reactions that can occur as a side effect of certain cancer treatments.
Today, 90% of cancer patients on immunotherapies and targeted therapies (e.g., EGFR inhibitors) experience skin reactions like rashes, xerosis and pruritus during treatment. 30% of patients undergoing treatment with EGFR inhibitors experienced severe enough skin reactions that they required dose adjustments or treatment cessation.
Despite severe skin reactions impacting treatment efficacy, less than 8% of oncologists refer patients for dermatology care. Barriers include time constraints, lack of awareness regarding available dermatological expertise and difficulty accessing dermatology care.
Patients face an average wait time of 33 days for dermatology appointments, with 70% of counties lacking dermatologists. Demand for dermatologists is 4x greater than current supply, as we have a 30,000-dermatologist shortage in the U.S.
The TAM for the U.S. specialty dermatology market is $29B and for dermatology in an outpatient setting, it is $23B. Within that, the teledermatology market was valued at $9.5B in 2022, growing at a 15.2% CAGR.
Supportive oncodermatology can help improve care in a variety of ways. For example, many cancers first present as rashes or skin cancers. It’s estimated that up to 20% of patients stop treatment due to skin issues, and 80% of patients report a significant improvement in their care experience when dermatology is integrated.
There is an opportunity to improve dermatologic care access, while tightly integrating into provider workflows in order to detect cancer earlier and help patients manage their treatments in a timely, effective manner.
We have come a long way, as melanoma death rates have cut in half in recent years. But, that is just true for larger, metropolitan cities. Specialized dermatology resources for cancer patients are concentrated in a handful of centers like Memorial Sloan Kettering and MD Anderson.
We need to scale that care and access to the rest of the U.S. Outside of these hubs, 90% of patients are without reliable dermatologic support. And, access to dermatology is further limited for lower-income patients, as only 30% of dermatologists accept public insurance, which disproportionately affects lower-income patients who are often reliant on Medicaid coverage.
Enter Tono Health
Tono Health is a virtual-first, AI driven supportive oncodermatology practice that is set to improve outcomes and reduce costs for key healthcare stakeholders. Their mission is to expand access to supportive oncoderm, bringing the level of care seen at leading institutions to communities across the country—helping patients stay on life-saving treatments and enhancing their quality of life during treatment.
Virtual platforms can manage 80% of dermatology needs remotely—from prescriptions to monitoring therapy side effects. Tono providers interpret lab and blood work, order and review biopsies and more.
Tono’s model offers a no-risk, high-reward value proposition for cancer centers and community health systems. They bill through existing CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) codes, meaning there’s zero upfront cost for the partner—only increased revenue and enhanced capacity to deliver comprehensive care.
Tono has built a bespoke EHR (Electronic Health Record) to ensure integration is seamless, with no IT requirements or additional costs. Tono handles all end to end operations, from onboarding to billing, all while sharing their data, in real-time, with the referring clinic via HIEs (Health Information Exchanges).
The Tono platform is the first system capable of delivering advanced treatments for skin (our most interconnected organ) remotely, with daily IV infusions, PICC lines and lab monitoring. The team also focuses on proactive interventions like moisturizers, sunscreens and antibiotics, which reduce rashes by up to 70%. We continuously see late diagnoses in patients with darker skin tones, as providers and patients aren’t well trained or educated in prevention and spotting changes in skin. Tono is working to address these disparities as well.
Tono’s traction to date has been stellar, while achieving 98% patient satisfaction, 100% equivalency to in-person results (based on a clinical study run by Tono) and providing timely access to care, with 100% of patients offered an appointment within one week. They are partnered with health systems like Mt. Sinai and Mary Washington Healthcare, and are in-network with UnitedHealthcare, Humana, Aetna, numerous BCBS plans and more.
Tono has built a team of dermatology and technology experts. On the clinical side, their providers come from leading institutions and 88% of them are from diverse backgrounds, speaking eight languages. On the technology side, the founding team comes from X (Twitter). Tono is led by repeat founder Bryson Tombridge.
Oncology Ventures is excited to partner with the Tono team as they improve cancer care through clinically validated and accessible oncodermatology care.
Comedy!
This month we’re diving into Fantasy Football, aka CrossFit for guys who drink Coors Light. Everyone who plays needs you to know they are in 12 leagues, so they are obviously popular, and that fantasy football is in fact skill-based. Unless of course they get a bad match-up that week, in which case, the other guy was obviously just lucky.
Your colleague will show up to work talking about their team’s lineup like they are the GM of the Dallas Cowboys. Oh your team? You mean the one you drafted at a Buffalo Wild Wings during happy hour? After their QB goes off for 40 points on Sunday night, they will strut around the office as if they personally coached Josh Allen.
It's always fun to watch adults yell at the TV because a QB isn’t throwing to the tight end they decided to start that week. Come on Mahomes, that pass was supposed to be to Travis Kelce! Relax, Mark - let’s funnel that enthusiasm into finally hitting your KPIs this month.
You will be in the break room hearing a co-worker who you used to respect - I need my running back to score 16 points tonight or I am toast. Your running back? Breece Hall doesn’t know you buddy. You drafted him in the first round of a fake league, not at the NFL Combine. Also, what would really make you toast is having your wildly inappropriate team name leak to your clients.
My favorite part of fantasy football is coming up early next year, where your Managing Director has to wear a chicken costume to work because Christian McCaffrey got injured and he finished in last place in his league. Have fun playing and if you can help it, it’s my fiduciary responsibility to tell you not to start Daniel Jones.
Ask
Are you going to the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in January? If so, we’d love to catch-up live
We are launching our Cancer Innovation Series in 2025, hosting curated events in the following cities. If you would like to 1) attend or 2) sponsor, let us know and we will share more details.
Atlanta, GA
Nashville, TN
Columbus, OH
Salt Lake City, UT
Chicago, IL
Boston, MA
Austin, TX
Omaha, NE
Los Angeles, CA