J.J. Abrams is set to executive produce and possibly direct a medical drama for HBO.

The cable network has given the green light to the show from from writers Tom Schulman and Rafael Yglesias; it explores the battle against cancer from the patients' point of view, and based on the 2004 book The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness by Jerome Groopman, a professor at Harvard Medical School and writer for the New Yorker. The Hollywood Reporter says it tells the stories of seriously ill patients of Groopman who had relied on their hope to cope with their illness; Groopman and his wife, Pamela Hartzband, also a professor at Harvard Medical School, will serve as consultants on the show.

The show has no current production schedule.