In this interview of pan-European radiotherapy provider Amethyst Radiotherapy, explains how his company is aiming to increase access to state of the art radiotherapy services, and provide a holistic care journey geared towards making the patient feel as comfortable as possible. Stéphane Carré will be sharing more about his business model at HBI 2025, in Paris, March 24-26, 2025. Click here to find out more.
Expanding Access and Patient Comfort in Radiotherapy
Amethyst is a private provider of cancer care, specialising in radiotherapy treatment. It was founded 15 years ago in Romania but has since expanded to 16 centres across six European countries. It has seven centres in France, four in Romania, two in the UK, one in Austria, one in Italy, and one in Poland.
The company treats more than 40,000 patients across Europe each year, more than any other private cancer care provider.
“We’re growing very fast and will soon announce the opening of a few more centres,” Carré says.
“From day one, our model has been to provide radiotherapy in areas which are not well covered. Some countries still have ‘white zones’ where radiotherapy is not available, and patients must travel long distances to reach medical centres where they can receive it. Living in the countryside should not be a reason for not being able to access treatment. Through expanding our footprint, we’re reaching more and more patients who couldn’t access proper treatments previously. When we’re able to develop in those zones it gives us a lot of satisfaction.”
Advancing Technology and Personalised Patient Care
“Our other key ambition is to make sure we’re at the forefront of what’s available in terms of clinical quality and efficiency and provide the best possible technology and know-how to patients. We provide quite a high-tech environment, and we’re moving towards more adaptive, personalised treatments. That’s really our goal.”
Carré adds that a third key element to the group’s business model is its ambition to make the patient feel as comfortable and at-ease as possible in their treatment journey.
“We provide both pre and post treatment services to the patient, designed to give them peace of mind. We provide services such as counselling, dieticians, or any other kind of medical service that comes after radiotherapy to help them recover fully,” Carré explains.
“This is a personal conviction that I’ve developed across my career in healthcare: whatever kind of treatment you’re providing — curative, palliative, or preventive — it’s critical to provide the patient not only with the best solution but to do so within a caring and comfortable environment. This is something I really want to focus on across all Amethyst centres.”
Part of the motivation for this holistic approach is the increasing survival rates for cancer over the past couple of decades. “An increasing number of patients who are living with cancer are coming back for recurrent treatments.”
Digital Innovation and Expansion Beyond Radiotherapy
Digitalisation of access to care is one way that Amethyst aims at to make patients’ journeys smoother:
“We have different levels of digital deployment in different countries. But we have various digital tools to take care of patients from the moment they enter the centre; AI and digital tools are heavily present. Our goal is to have a common tool that we can deploy across different countries. We’re not there yet but it’s our ambition. I’m convinced it will help us to go further with the support we’re providing to patients.”
Another important avenue the group is pursuing is expanding into other areas of clinical oncology treatment outside of radiotherapy:
“Radiotherapy will remain our core area of expertise. But if one wants to provide the best care, and reach patients as early as possible, we need to increase our presence across the oncology pathway. We have done this in the past where it was needed in several countries: we have offered chemotherapy and have developed brachytherapy. But we want to do more of this now and do it in a more systematic way.”
“As a clinical oncology platform, it is important to take a holistic approach and pursue the most adapted pathways. Notably, the evolutions of theragnostics, immunotherapy, and nuclear medicine are happening very quickly. As a leading and fast-growing player in clinical oncology, we believe that healthcare providers need to steer their organisations towards solutions focused on the “four Ps”. Predictive, Preventive, Personalised, Participative care.”
Partnering with Public Healthcare to Strengthen Healthcare Systems
Most of Amethyst’s activity is for and with the public sector.
“We contract with public healthcare and public hospital facilities; this is our basic model. The public is facing an ageing population, with an increasing cancer prevalence, and the means available to public facilities are limited. We help public healthcare systems to face those evolutions. We come in with a different way of operating to the public sector,” Carré explains.
“Often, we work directly with public providers on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis. We have a few PPPs in Italy and Poland, and we just signed our first PPP in France. This is an important development because it allows us to help public facilities to invest where they otherwise might not be able to. We invest on their behalf, run the centres on their behalf, allowing them to provide the right treatment at the right place and keep the number of patients they need.”
Amethyst’s Four-Part Strategy for Future Growth
In terms of future expansion, Carré identifies four routes Amethyst is pursuing for growth:
“At the level of each country, we identify white zones where radiotherapy is lacking, and try to find a solution, either through network extension, or building greenfield centres. Secondly, we’re always trying to increase capacity in existing centres, by investing in new techniques.”
“The third way we can expand is by entering new countries. The preferred way to do this is by acquiring. Once we have acquired, we look at how to improve the capacity, by investing in new techniques.”
“And finally, we’re also on the lookout for the right opportunities to enter new markets by acquiring a large player. Of course, such opportunities are rare — in the six countries in which Amethyst is present, there is no equivalent in terms of footprint and capacity to reach and treat patients. But there are a few potential candidates across Europe.”
For further insights, read the full interview with Stéphane Carré on Healthcare Business International.
