Georges letter!or dream, er whatever it was in early june. maybe a rehash will make everyones feel ... there is a dire need and market for this?
Dear Friend;
Attached is news we released today. her is some background.
1. Cancer is a big application with 23M people in USA with cancer and 1.7M new patients a year. Since all chemotherapy agents hurt the heart, the American Heart Association (AHA) has put out a statement saying cancer patients should ask to have their heart examined before, during and after therapy as they are more likely to die from heart problems than cancer after they have the therapy.
2. MD Anderson has been ranked as the number one cancer hospital in the USA 28 out of the last 30 years and is clearly the leader in clinical innovation, so we are very pleased they have ordered the VMS+ and will immediately start using it clinically - no research study as they know heart problems are prevalent.
3. MD Anderson is not just a hopsital but a network of several hospitals who see 1.5M patients per year and perform almost 600,000 imaging studies. This network would need 750 VMS+ devices to treat their patients according to the AHA guidelines (3 scans per patient) at full utilization. Many survey’s have shown ultrasound equipment is used only 50% to 60% of the capacity due to scheduling and other issues, so in reality they would need 1,500 machines just for their network. The chief cardiologists will be using the VMS+ initially in the main hospital in Houston to get a good understanding of how it works and how it can be used in all their hospitals.
4. There are 1,500 cancer centres in USA, who deal with the 23M patients. Patients come back twice a year to check to see if the cancer has regrown and the AHA is saying they really should be more worried about heart conditions then cancer. Ask anyone you know who has cancer therapy of they have had an echocardiogram. I am doing this and I have yet to find anyone. To follow the AHA guidelines in the USA with the normal utilization rates would require 20,000 VMS+ machines. At $75,000 each this would be $1.5B of sales. That is just the USA. European market is 1.5 times the USA.
5. Note hypertension (100 million people in USA , 80,000 VMS+ machines needed) is an even bigger application and we are working on a lead order in this space as well.
6. Reducing the use of contrast media which is used in 20-30% or all echocardiograms (40M per year in USA) is another large application which would require 3,000 VMS+ machine to address.
Thank you for your continued support,
George Adams