Douglas Flora, Executive Medical Director of Yung Family Cancer Center at St. Elizabeth Healthcare, President-Elect of the Association of Cancer Care Centers, and Editor in Chief of AI in Precision Oncology, shared a post by Supriya Laknidhi, Co-founder and CEO at Cerula Care, on LinkedIn, adding:
“The Problem We’re Not Addressing.
We know 30-40% of cancer patients experience significant psychological distress. Depression affects up to 25%. Yet psychosocial support in most programs means screening tools generating scores we can’t act on, overextended social workers, and bimonthly support groups. We’ve systematized measuring suffering while remaining unable to address it.
An excerpt from the article below:
“Patients aren’t waiting for the system to approve it-they’re already using AI for day-to-day support: journaling, skill practice, problem-solving, and in-the-moment coaching.”
Cancer patients are doing exactly this. ChatGPT at midnight to explain pathology reports. Meditation apps for scan anxiety. Reddit communities for answers they can’t get until next month. They’re building support infrastructure in the gaps we’ve left.
This isn’t patients being difficult. It’s patients showing us what unmet need looks like.
Patients don’t process mortality during 30-minute counseling sessions. They process it at 3 AM. When their teenager asks impossible questions. In fragments, over months, in moments we never see.
The mental health field is responding by extending clinical expertise into the 167 hours weekly when patients aren’t in an office. Companies like Headspace, Jimini Health, and Cerula Care aren’t replacing therapists-they’re creating infrastructure for the continuous work patients are already doing, alone, with inadequate tools.
We can keep pointing to staffing shortages as reasons that transformation isn’t possible. Or we can recognize that the space between appointments isn’t a gap in care-it’s where most of the suffering happens.
The technology exists. Companies like Cerula are building oncology-specific solutions. The window is open for psychosocial oncology.
Let’s not waste it.
Thanks to Supriya Laknidhi and Kyle Lavin for the insights that sparked this thinking. Your work is so important.”
Quoting Supriya Laknidhi‘s post:
“I love hashtag The Hemingway Report’s top mental health trends of 2025. Of course, I’m a believer in trend #3 and the rise of population specific mental health solutions (Steve Duke, honored to have you mention Cerula Care!).
At Cerula Care, we are living some of these trends (#6 – our clinician experience being reshaped by AI, #8 – prospective customers are asking about access and quality, and #7 – many of our members are not open to taking psychotropic medication)
Exciting time for mental health!”
More posts featuring Douglas Flora.