RE:VENTRIPOINT JV BEGINS PROCESS TO HAVE HEART ANALYSIS SYSTEM Dear Friend;
Attached is a press release outlining progress in China where our JV partner Yutian is reporting a new initiative by the Chinese government to equip all ICUs with a way to evaluate the right ventricle (RV) of the heart.
Here is some background:
1. Studies have shown 40% of COVID patents have dilated RVs, which is the first stage of chronic RV failure and needs to be treated immediately. RV size is correlated to death (the more the dilation the more likely the patient will die).
2. China has clearly crunched the data and seen the need for RV assessment to properly treat and triage COVID patients in an ICU based upon RV dilation and so has made this a mandate for ICUs. I can only hope hospitals world-wide follow their lead.
3. The RV is a thin weak muscle as it does not usually take much effort to pump blood through the lungs and so it does not take much lung congestion to over-stress the RV. It also has very little capacity to recover form stress (unlike the LV which recovers even after many years of stress once the stress is removed).
4. The QAS (VMS name in China) is ideal to meet the need to assess the RV and this would increase the market in China significantly as now hospitals would need QAS machines in their echocardiography departments for routine use as well as their ICUs for COVID patients.
5. Cardiac ultrasound is done much more frequently in ChIna then elsewhere in the world as every patient going for any type of surgery must have an echocardiogram done and so the echocardiography units at Chinese hospitals are very large and will require many QAS machines per hospital to deal with patient flow.
6. I am not certain how long the process will be in China to have the QAS certified for use in COVID patients. I imagine if there is a flare up of COVID cases, it would happen very quickly. I know everyone is concerned about variants that are more infectious and lethal.
7. Kings College in London is using their VMS+3.0 on COVID patents and we are executing a PO from a second COVID centre in the UK any day now. The UK has announced plans to establish 40 COVID-specific clinics to deal with long-COVID patients and these patients would require multiple echocardiograms over the next year.
8. We are also expecting a PO from a major centre in the USA, which has been active in publishing on the need for RV assessment in COVID patents.
Thank you for your continued support and interest as we continue on our mission to improve cardiac care for everyone world-wide and especially for children..