Sermo has acquired Payer Access and Charter Oak as part of its effort to boost its payer and oncologist reach, the company announced Wednesday.

Payer Access is an insights provider with access to payers and clinicians, while Charter Oak is a healthcare research company. Both acquisitions will give Sermo, an online community for physicians that includes more than 1.3 million HCPs globally, better reach across healthcare providers (HCPs) and payers in the oncology space, the company said.

Sermo’s oncology community has grown by 28% since 2018, with the company projecting further growth throughout 2023. Additionally, the company has a goal of hosting more than 42,000 oncologists on the platform by the end of the year.

“This strategic expansion is a testament to Sermo’s ongoing growth trajectory and directly fills gaps in the healthcare industry’s needs,” Sermo CEO Peter Kirk said in a statement. “[A]cquisitions such as Charter Oak and Payer Access give us increased 360-degree market visibility, added connections to the oncology community and unique access to essential audiences that directly impact outcomes for millions.”

The company noted that part of the reason for its further investment in building out its oncology community is a response to the ongoing nationwide oncologist shortage. The American Society of Clinical Oncology predicts a shortage of 2,200 or more oncologists by 2025, an issue exacerbated by the pandemic.

In addition, the rate of early-onset cancers has increased in recent years, according to a 2022 study published in Nature. That rise of cancers in people 50 years or younger in addition to an oncologist shortage is driving Sermo’s investment in “providing a trusted platform for real-time insights and engagements among crucial stakeholder groups,” the company said.

The two acquisitions were released weeks after Sermo released the third part of a docuseries developed in partnership with Digital Health Networks that followed Kirk’s journey in meeting his blood stem cell donor. The docuseries, “A Life Worth Running,” showed Kirk’s experience in being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, but recovering after a life-saving blood stem cell transplant and subsequently running the New York City Marathon.