Dr. Edward Kim, Vice Physician-in-Chief at City of Hope National Medical Center and Physician-in-Chief at City of Hope Orange County

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Guest: Dr. Edward Kim, Vice Physician-in-Chief at City of Hope National Medical Center & Physician-in-Chief at City of Hope Orange County
Host: Elizabeth Gregerson
Date: February 3, 2026
Episode Focus: National expansion, innovation in clinical trials, organizational culture, and the future of comprehensive cancer care at City of Hope.

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Episode Overview

This episode features Dr. Edward Kim, a key clinical and operational leader at City of Hope, discussing the organization’s journey in expanding its nationwide cancer care footprint, streamlining clinical trials, leveraging AI, and pushing forward holistic and integrative cancer care. Listeners gain insights into the unique organizational strategy, successes and learning moments of 2025, as well as the key priorities and challenges facing City of Hope in 2026.

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Introduction & Dr. Kim’s Background ([01:10]–[04:04])

• Dr. Ed Kim’s Role:

  • Medical oncologist specializing in lung and head/neck cancers.
  • Leadership responsibilities in building City of Hope’s Orange County campus and system-wide clinical trials.

• City of Hope Overview:

  • Over 100 years old; pivotal in synthetic insulin, CAR T platforms, and bone marrow transplants.
  • Network spans 30+ sites in California, as well as campuses in Atlanta, Phoenix, and Northern Chicago.
  • Focus: Expanding patient access to cancer expertise and research nationwide.

  Quote:

  “We have now opened the full campus with the outpatient center in 2022 and the inpatient hospital just this past December, first in 25 and had a joy of recruiting over 100 physicians and over 700 staff to really take care of the patients in Orange County.”
  — Dr. Kim ([01:46])

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Major 2025 Initiatives: Clinical Trials Expansion & Organizational Culture ([04:31]–[08:59])

• National Clinical Trials Network:

  • Dr. Kim led the creation of a unique, multi-state clinical trials infrastructure with a single IRB, PI, and contract.
  • First trials were launched simultaneously across five major campuses and all City of Hope regional sites.
  • Achieved a 90-day activation time (vs. 8–12 months typical in other institutions).
  • Reached 86 million lives within 90 minutes of 40 sites.

  Quote:

  “There’s really no other academic center in this country that has a singularly connected clinical trials footprint across multiple states. And we created that.”
  — Dr. Kim ([04:51])

  • Metrics:
    • 1st patient consent within two weeks of activation, enrolment within 30 days.
    • Broader clinical research access reduces patient travel and expands trial participation.

• Workforce Growth & Culture:

  • Opened new inpatient hospital in Orange County; doubling medical staff.
  • Focused on maintaining a people-centered culture through hiring and onboarding.

  Quote:

  “People will comment how special our culture is here... everyone is friendly, from our front desk person to our valet, to our custodial service, to our... people in the cafeteria.”
  — Dr. Kim ([08:14])

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2026 Priorities: Decentralization, AI Integration, & Access ([09:49]–[14:05])

• Relentless Innovation:

  • Continual push to build momentum and innovate as cancer incidence remains high.

• Decentralizing Clinical Trials:

  • Implementing remote monitoring, telemedicine, and decentralized lab draws to increase patient convenience.

• Broader Eligibility for Trials:

  • Dr. Kim is a long-time advocate for reducing exclusionary criteria in trials.

  Quote:

  “We talk about access, we want to open it in more places, but if the eligibility criteria remain very restrictive... we are excluding patients unnecessarily. And that's ironic because it's a scientific study, but we're not using science to determine who's eligible for these studies.”
  — Dr. Kim ([11:31])

• Leveraging Artificial Intelligence:

  • AI feasibility program searches EHRs to identify where patient pools exist and direct clinical trials accordingly.
  • AI-driven clinical trial matching tools cross-reference patient records and eligibility to inform clinical trial opportunities.

  Quote:

  “Let’s make note of the time I said the word AI...AI is not going to fix everything. But we do know there are some real pragmatic tools that AI can help us with.”
  — Dr. Kim ([12:30])

• Workforce Efficiency:

  • Technology adoption aims to scale research and care with fewer resources while maintaining quality.

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Biggest Challenge & Greatest Opportunity for 2026 ([14:52]–[18:26])

• Challenges:

  • Systemic bureaucracy—including regulatory hurdles and prior authorization—slows clinical and research progress.
  • Variability across insurance payers and regulatory frameworks in different states complicates national operations.
  • Increasing cancer screening rates, especially for lung cancer, remains a persistent gap.

  Quote:

  “There’s a lot of bureaucracy...whether that's through clinical trials or even trying to treat patients and getting prior authorization, there seems to be a lot of steps or hurdles placed in front of our providers to try and deliver the care that they want.”
  — Dr. Kim ([14:55])

• Opportunities:

  • The national clinical trial network facilitates rapid, efficient testing and scaling of new treatments and care models.
  • New collaborations and partnerships are expanding due to the unique scale and reach of City of Hope's network.

  Quote:

  “Our physicians, our investigators, our scientists see this as a huge canvas in which now they can dream about implementing something quickly, efficiently, and get an answer quickly... we’ll be able to fast fail or accelerate quicker based on those results.”
  — Dr. Kim ([17:27])

• Expansion of Integrative Oncology:

  • Plans to scale holistic care nationally, combining eastern and western medicine, aiming for high-quality, data-driven evidence for supportive therapies.
  • Integrative oncology clinical trials launching as a national initiative.

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Memorable Closing & Vision for the Future ([18:26]–End)

• Evidence-Based Integrative Care:

  • Commitment to scientifically evaluating integrative therapies to provide meaningful, healing experiences for patients.

  Quote:

  “We’re going to test it with level one data. Should we move forward or should we put it off to the side?”
  — Dr. Kim ([19:05])

• Final Message:

  • Dr. Kim remains focused on patient-centered innovation, scaling best practices, and advancing whole-person care.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “We were able to do that [open clinical trials] simultaneously... our trial activation time is still around 90 days, which most places it's 8 to 12 months.” — Dr. Kim ([06:24])
• “If you can scale an office, provide access to patients where they live...they will engage in clinical trials.” — Dr. Kim ([07:13])
• “The only way we're going to improve our career, improve the standard of care, is by clinical trial opportunity.” — Dr. Kim ([07:26])
• “We need to continue to build momentum on what we've done and continue to iterate, continue to rethink, reimagine.” — Dr. Kim ([10:18])
• “I want to continue to see people do well and treat them holistically, not just try and cure their cancer, but also help calm and heal their mind, their body, and their spirit.” — Dr. Kim ([13:58])
• “We do have a program of integrative oncology... this coming year, we're going to scale that nationally as well.” — Dr. Kim ([18:07])

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Key Takeaways

• City of Hope’s national expansion of clinical research infrastructure is uniquely comprehensive and nimble, setting rapid activation benchmarks for the industry.
• Decentralization, technology (especially AI), and broader eligibility are central strategies to make trials—and care—more accessible and equitable.
• Despite systemic and operational challenges, Dr. Kim and his team remain committed to patient-centric innovation and holistic care, scaling both cutting-edge therapies and integrative approaches.
• The organization is poised to further transform cancer care and research, with transparent evaluation and ambitious plans for nationwide impact in 2026.

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Transcript

[A]

Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings healthcare leaders together to unpack the most pressing issues facing the industry. And every year, those conversations shift in profound and unexpected ways. This April, more than 3,500 healthcare executives will return to Chicago for Becker's 16th annual meeting. 795 elite speakers will offer new lessons, new case studies, and predictions about what comes next. Join us April 13th through the 16th. For the agenda and event details, visit Beckershospitalview.com and click on the Events tab in the upper right.

[B]

Welcome to the Beckers Healthcare Podcast. I'm Elizabeth Gregerson, a reporter here at Beckers, and I'm Thrilled to interview Dr. Ed Kim, Vice Physician in Chief at City of Hope National Medical Center, Physician in Chief at City of Hope, Orange county, and Director of System Clinical Trials, on the podcast today. Thank you so much for joining me today, Dr. Kim. I'm grateful to share your insights with our podcast audience.

[A]

Thanks, Elizabeth. It's my pleasure to join you today and really engage with your Beckers audience.

[B]

Absolutely. So before I dive into all of my questions, could you briefly introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about your role and your organization?

[A]

Yeah. So I just go by Ed and I am a medical oncologist by training at some lung cancer cancer and head and neck cancer subspecialty. Spent a lot of time doing clinical and translational work, but now I have spent my most recent times helping build new hospitals. I came to City of Hope about five years ago to build the second campus of City of Hope in Orange County. We have now opened the full campus with the outpatient center in 2022 and the inpatient hospital just this past December, first in 25 and had a joy of recruiting over 100 physicians and over 700 staff to really take care of the patients in Orange county, deliver a really focused area in expertise in cancers, clinical research, and taking care of the whole person. It's been a really great journey and now we're up and running and I have a great staff and a great culture. City of Hope, as you know, has been around for over 100 years and we were the origins of synthetic insulin for diabetes and as well as CAR T platforms and antibody platforms and do more bone marrow transplants than any other center in the country. So we have a lot of aspects where we have deep expertise. But also what's unique about us is that we are now an institution, a cancer institution that spans a nationwide network. Not only do we have 30 plus sites in California as well as the two campuses, I described Duarte as Well around the Los Angeles area and Irvine in Orange County. But we also have campuses in Atlanta, Phoenix and Northern Chicago. And this has truly given us a lot of opportunity to create access for people across the country, especially bringing not only our knowledge and expertise in the various cancers, but also opportunities for clinical research and allowing participation of a variety of people across the country to do so. So it's a very unique situation that City of Hope has right now, and it's really been fulfilling to help move them in the direction where we can create opportunities for our patients.

[B]

Perfect. Thank you for laying that out for us. I think you did such a great job of not only explaining City of Hope and everything City of Hope does, but kind of everything you've got your hands in. I'd love to look back with you for a little bit to hear maybe what's the most important initiative you felt that you led in the last year? Maybe what you did specifically to get those results and what those results were as you look back at 2025.

[A]

Yeah, 2025 is going to go down as one of those years where we did a lot of stuff. Not only myself, but City of Hope did. Probably one of the more national facing stories was about two years ago I was asked to become the leader of the clinical trials office. We were expanding greatly in California. We had opened our second campus in Orange county. And now we had sites across the country again in Illinois and Georgia and in Arizona. And so we needed to create a unique model. It's. It's much easier when you have a playbook out there and you can find it and you can model it, but there's really no other academic center that in this country that has a singularly connected clinical trials footprint across multiple states. And we created that. It took us about a year to 14 months to get the infrastructure in place. And in March of last year, we launched our first set of clinical trials that opened simultaneously across all these sites. So five major campuses again in the LA area, Irvine, Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, as well as any other of our regional sites that exist in the City of Hope network. That was all covered by a single irb, single, single PI, single contract. You know, people who, who do clinical trials will know what I'm talking about here. That is not the norm. You usually open a trial at one site at your main site, and then you later open them at other sites. And so we were able to do that simultaneously. We've always had very good activation times and our trial activation time is still around 90 days, which most places it's 8 to 12 months. We have nearly 40 sites across the country, and really, that gives US access to 86 million lives within 90 minutes of all of our 40 sites across the country. Not only has this provided access, but our numbers, our metrics that we're following, we are consenting people into a trial within the first two weeks of activation and enrolling our first patient within 30 days. And so it truly has shown that if you can scale an office, provide access to patients where they live, closer to where they live, so they don't have to travel long distances, they will engage in clinical trials. And we know that the only way we're going to improve our career, improve the standard of care, is by clinical trial opportunity. So that was a big lift. We have an amazing team across the country that. That really supports this. And it's all for our investigators. Our investigators are the ones that are writing new studies, they're finding new studies, and we want to empower them to be able to bring these studies all across the country to the patients. And again, the ultimate goal is to give opportunities to patients. That was one part of last year. The other part was, as I said, we opened our inpatient hospital here in Orange county. And, you know, I hired about 45 doctors. When we opened the outpatient center in 2022, we had to more than double that. We hired 50 additional doctors as well as 30 additional apps on top of our 20, and then again, over 700 staff. So you can imagine the one thing that I always look at when we do that is to maintain our culture. People will comment how special our culture is here, how people feel like they're taken care of so well that everyone is friendly, from our front desk person to our valet, to our custodial service, to our, you know, our. Our people in the cafeteria. Very good. So it really has been a fulfilling year, not only to bring up new structures, but hire new people, maintain that culture, and bring expertise, cancer expertise, to new parts of the country.

[B]

Perfect. And, you know, I always love talking to leaders from City of Hope, but even our audience, you know, of hospital and health system leaders, maybe outside of oncology, I think can relate to everything you mentioned with, you know, trying to scale a new initiative, particularly clinical trials, is something that I've seen, you know, more health systems moving towards adopting their own infrastructure. And then also, you know, that workforce, that culture, intentionally putting efforts there and with the opening of the hospital. So I really am grateful for your. For you sharing your perspective. It sounds like an exciting year, and I feel like you could probably have five different answers to this next question. But Looking ahead at 2026, are there any big priorities that you're focused on as the year gets started?

[A]

I think every time we turn the calendar, and not the fiscal year calendar, but the, the. The regular calendar, into January of 26 now, it allows us to reset and refocus. We should never be happy with where we are. We need to continue to build momentum on what we've done and continue to iterate, continue to rethink, reimagine, because we know that cancer continues. There are going to be another 2 million people diagnosed in this country with cancer this year. And although we know people are living longer, we know that there's still a high number of incidents that's occurring. And so we have to continue to think about how we can bring access to these patients. And one of those areas is decentralizing clinical trials. We're trying to set a goal where we can set up a trial without having a human have to touch another human. So utilizing remote monitoring, telemedicine, allowing laboratories to be drawn in different areas, these are all things that can help the patient. I've been a champion for maybe over a decade now. Gosh, that sounds like a long time of broadening eligibility. One of the things I think is so silly about a clinical trial is we talk about access, we want to open it in more places, but if the eligibility criteria remain very restrictive, and there's on a median of 28 to 30 eligibility criteria per oncology clinical trial, we are excluding patients unnecessarily. And that's ironic because it's a scientific study. But we're not using science to determine who's eligible for these studies. And I use that in a broad sense. Yes, there are some very specific criteria that are absolutely needed to keep a patient safe. But many of the criteria in there do not need to be there, and they exclude patients unnecessarily. So we will continue to even work on the protocols and push for broader eligibility so people can have access. And then, yes, let's make note of the time I said the word AI. We always like to note when somebody likes to bring that up. AI is not going to fix everything. But we do know there are some real pragmatic tools that AI can help us with. And we've already launched two programs within our clinical trials office to utilize AI to help streamline work and create efficiencies. One of them is, is that we have a vast network, as I described, across four states. We can use an AI feasibility program to use eligibility criteria from a protocol and search within the electronic health record across the country and use that information to decide where best should we place and open these clinical trials where there are more eligible patients. So that's a smart way of opening trials instead of opening them everywhere and not having in places. The second tool we're using is a clinical trial matching tool. Again, taking eligibility criteria from a trial, screening our electronic health records of our patients, and then seeing if we can find, hey, this patient may be eligible for these two trials or these three trials, or maybe we don't have a trial that they're eligible for. These are ways that are going to create workforce efficiency, allow us to scale broader and more with less resources, less human resources. But we still need those human resources to really conduct the research. So those are all of the things we're looking for. 2026. I want to continue to see people do well and treat them holistically, not just try and cure their cancer, but also help calm and heal their mind, their body, and their spirit.

[B]

Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, I feel like what you mentioned really does go hand in hand. Harnessing technology, harnessing AI to push not the envelope, but push maybe the industry forward when it comes to clinical trial access and eligibility. So thanks for bringing that key point up. It's something I'm definitely going to keep my eye on to see, you know, the big moves in the future in those regards. For my last question here, I'd kind of like to look at two sides of the same coin, because it can all be good and it can't all be bad. Right. So I'd love to just have that honest conversation about what is the hardest thing or the biggest challenge you think you will face in this next coming year. And at the same time, what do you see as the best opportunity for organizational growth?

[A]

You know, if we're talking in the world of medicine, there's a lot of bureaucracy. I know. I'm glad you're sitting down. I hope you're sitting down when I said that. And whether that's through clinical trials or even trying to treat patients and getting prior authorization, there seems to be a lot of steps or hurdles placed in front of our providers to try and deliver the care that they want. So this will always be a challenge. We continue to try to reimagine and think outside the box, because at the bottom line, at the end of the day, we need to make sure the patient is safe, whether that's in the clinic or whether we're treating them on a Clinical trial. So if we can still be regulatory compliant, make sure we have integrity in our data and what we're doing with patient safety, then we can find ways to move more nimbly, be more efficient. So this is what I continue to challenge my team with, is that I understand this is the way you've been told to do it. Maybe you've been doing it for 20 years, but is that the way we should do it? And if we should do it a certain way, how can we go about that? So we continue to ask ourselves those questions. It is complicated running a national clinical trials network. There are different payer strategies across these four states, and there's different regulatory frameworks in all these states. And so we do have to deal with each one of these areas a little bit separately, but holistically for the same goal. And we need to continue to push screening and prevention. It still came out in the American Cancer Society report that in lung cancer, only 18% of people are getting lung cancer screening. And so we want to push that survival further and further. And part of that is not just treating people when they have advanced disease with great therapies and great biomarkers to help that drive that which we have, but to screen. And so really pushing that. And then our opportunities, I think I've mentioned this national clinical trial network is going to be amazing. I think we have a lot of people knocking on our door trying to see how they can collaborate with us. We have, we can test all types of different trials, techniques and even, you know, current drugs in these models. And so I think our physicians, our investigators, our scientists see this as a huge canvas in which now they can dream about implementing something quickly, efficiently, and get an answer quickly is what really we need when we're trying to test something. And by getting those answers quickly, we'll be able to fast fail or accelerate quicker based on those results. And so I think that's why it's so important. You know, we do have a program of integrative oncology. This coming year, we're going to scale that nationally as well. And integrative oncology takes the best of eastern and western medicine and tries to treat the patient as a complete patient again, not just curing the tumor, but also to heal the mind and lift the spirits. So we will be launching clinical trials as well through that mechanism. And I think that's what's best for patients is that not only that we're giving them therapies to help them live longer, but we're going to give them also techniques and trials to live their life better.

[B]

Perfect. And you know, just from my own background as a reporter on oncology, I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with oncology leaders who speak about these integrative therapies and say, well, there's no clinical trial data, but we know, you know, we know that it helps the patient. We know that it, you know, comforts them or helps with healing. So I'm super excited to hear what's going to come out of those trials. And I know the industry for sure we'll be waiting to see the results. So thank you for giving us a sneak peek on that.

[A]

Well, I'm very excited about it. We're excited about it. And I'm excited for the patients to have that opportunity. And to your point, Elizabeth, we're going to test it. We're going to test it with level one data. Should we move forward or should we put it off to the side?

[B]

Right. Well, perfect. I think that's a really hopeful, optimistic place to end it on. I always enjoy speaking with you and I can't thank you enough for joining me on the podcast today. I think it's been a really amazing and informative discussion.

[A]

Well, Elizabeth, thank you for the invitation and it's been my pleasure and I look forward to seeing everyone at the Beckers meeting.

[B]

Absolutely. And I invite our listeners to tune in to more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast page at Becker's Hospital review. Com. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day.