Children's Mercy Partners with Basepath Health to Scale Cell and Gene Therapy Access for Pediatric Patients
Key Insights
Children's Mercy (search) announced a major expansion of its cell and gene therapy program through a collaboration with Basepath Health (search), an AI-native operating platform designed to streamline advanced therapy delivery.
The partnership aims to treat five times as many patients over the next four years by reducing operational barriers and accelerating access to life-changing treatments for children with rare genetic disorders (search) and complex diseases.
The expanded program will utilize intelligent workflows across pre-treatment, treatment, and post-treatment phases while maintaining pediatric-focused, family-centered care standards.
Children's Mercy (search), a nationally recognized pediatric health system, has announced a major expansion of its cell and gene therapy program through a strategic partnership with Basepath Health (search). The collaboration aims to dramatically increase access to life-changing treatments for children with complex and rare conditions, with a goal of treating five times as many patients over the next four years.
Addressing Critical Access Barriers
Despite rapid advances in cell and gene therapies, access remains significantly constrained for pediatric patients. Families often face extended waiting periods because only a limited number of hospitals can provide these specialized treatments, and the operational and financial requirements are substantial. The expanded program is specifically designed to reduce these barriers and help more children receive timely treatment in a pediatric setting built for their unique needs.
"Children's Mercy (search) has long been at the forefront of pediatric care, and cell and gene therapies represent the next frontier in what's possible for kids facing the most complex conditions," said Alejandro Quiroga, MD, MBA, President and CEO of Children's Mercy. "By expanding these highly specialized services, we're helping families access cutting-edge technology and comprehensive support—right here, close to home."
AI-Powered Operating Model
The partnership leverages Basepath Health (search)'s AI-native operating platform to establish a next-generation, scalable model for delivering advanced therapies across multiple disease states and care settings. Children's Mercy (search) will lead clinical care delivery, while Basepath Health enables streamlined, complex care pathways across pre-treatment, treatment, and post-treatment phases.
The collaboration supports patient identification and education, treatment navigation, and long-term outcomes tracking and reporting required for federally approved therapies. This approach is designed to reduce administrative and operational burden on clinical teams, allowing physicians and caregivers to focus on delivering care while maintaining the highest standards of clinical excellence and patient-centered care.
"As more cell and gene therapies come to market, the challenge is how to translate and integrate them into real-world delivery," said Akshara Reddy, co-founder and CEO of Basepath Health (search). "Delivering these therapies requires a fundamentally different level of infrastructure, coordination and operational alignment. Basepath enables health systems to do exactly that."
Transforming Treatment Paradigms
Cell and gene therapies are fundamentally transforming care for children and young adults with rare genetic disorders (search), aggressive cancers (search), and a growing range of complex diseases. Unlike conventional medicine that helps manage chronic symptoms, newer options such as in vivo and ex vivo gene therapies and CAR-T cell therapy aim to halt or even reverse disease progression, often with a single treatment.
"Cell and gene therapies are opening a new era of hope for children, adolescents and young adults with sickle cell disease (search)—treating the root cause, not just the symptoms," said Shabnam Arsiwala, MD, FAAP, Director of Children's Mercy (search)'s Sickle Cell Disease Program. "Through our collaboration with Basepath Health (search), we're focused on helping more families access these therapies—while surrounding every patient with the comprehensive, family-centered support that's at the heart of our program."
Current Portfolio and Future Expansion
Children's Mercy (search) began offering cell and gene therapy more than 10 years ago and currently provides a broad portfolio of FDA-approved treatments. The program includes Zolgensma, Itvisma (search), Elevidys, Casgevy, and Kymriah. In the past year, the health system delivered these personalized therapies to a limited number of patients, but the new collaboration is designed to scale alongside a rapidly evolving pipeline, enabling access to additional therapies as they emerge.
The expansion represents a significant commitment to advancing pediatric medicine and addressing unmet medical needs for children across Missouri, Kansas, and the broader Midwest region. With more than 800 pediatric experts, researchers, and faculty, Children's Mercy (search) aims to outpace many providers across the Midwest and nation in delivering these highly specialized treatments.