Dear Friend;
Attached is the NR from today announcing our second remote installation and this time it is in the USA at the number one cancer hospital - MD Anderson in Houston
Here is some background:
1. Cancer is a huge application for the VMS+3.0 as most cancer treatments are cardiotoxic - they damage the heart permanently - in 25-30% of patients. If fact the American Heart Association put out a scientific statement basically saying patients who have had cancer therapy are more like to die from heart problems than recurrent cancer and needed to be followed closely for life.
2. Heart damage is usually measured by 2D ultrasound of the left ventricle (LV), but it takes a lot to damage the LV. The right ventricle (RV) is much more sensitive and really should be the chamber used to monitor cardiotoxicity.
3. Up until the VMS+3.0 came along, the only way to accurately measure RV function was using simple measurements that were unreliable or by MRI, which is just too costly, So doctors have relied on LV measurements.
4. MD Anderson does almost $1B/year of research and is always pushing the edge. They believe, as do we, that proper assessment of the RV would be game changer in determining the damage to the heart during cancer therapy, so they have purchased our product.
5. The intention here is to just get on with clinical use of the VMS+3.0 to assess heart function in patients. This is not a clinical research study but actual changing therapy based on the results.
6. The chief cardiologist is excited to get started and will endorse the VMS+3.0 to his colleagues at other cancer centres as soon as he has some cases under his belt. This will be an enormous endorsement for us.
7. Once again we did this installation remotely in a few hours with minimal hospital assistance. With the installation we did last week in Europe, this shows we can install anywhere in the world remotely. It will be fun to see this happen.
8. A big part of selling into the USA is the existing re-imbursement code which allows any doctor to bill for the procedure and so the VMS+3.0 instantly becomes a profitable procedure as the re-imbursement is $100-300 depending on the payer. We have confirmed with the American Society for Echocardiography our procedure is covered under the code.
9. We have included in the VMS+3.0 a stand-alone workstation module to allow for the analysis to be done in viewing room and not on the device itself as this is the way American hospitals do things and it is a requirement for the re-imbursement code to be applicable.
Thanks for your continued support and interest.