Diabetic Retinopathy Market Predicted to Hit US$10.11 Billion by 2022
Diagnos Launches Hypertension Screening Application
AI Healthcare Applications Expected to Grow at 52% CAGR Between 2017-2022, Hitting US$7.98 Billion
Momentum Public Relations
Blog: September 24, 2018
On September 14th, 2018 Diagnos (TSXV: ADK) held an investor presentation at a downtown Montreal bistro for retail and institutional investors. Diagnos’ flagship product is CARA, computer aided retinal analysis, a cost efficient diabetic retinopathy screening application running on the company’s artificial intelligence platform Flaire. The company has been going from triumph to triumph this year. One indication of that was the presence of Chinese investment fund representatives.
During the presentation, recently appointed Diagnos Board member Dr. Reed Maclellan described the company’s technology as being “light years ahead of the competition. I was at a recent conference and nobody, not even Google can do what Cara can. Cara can detect macular degeneration. This is the only technology in the world that can do it. Diagnos is five years ahead of Google.”
Maclellan is an adjunct professor at both Harvard and the Boston Children’s Hospital where he teaches surgery. A microcirculation specialist, Dr. Maclellan also lectures internationally and frequently speaks at conferences of the American College of Surgeons, the Plastic Surgeons Research Council and the International Society of Vascular Anomalies.
Diagnos develops screening tools that help health care providers cut costs and make early diagnoses. Cara is designed to detect diabetic retinopathy and has the potential to prevent 85-90% of diabetes induced vision loss through early detection. At last count Cara has screened 222,034 patients, in 16 countries, using 131 screening sites. If untreated diabetic retinopathy leads to blindness.
The company is currently conducting its first Canadian pilot project in Montreal at CHUM, the Centre hospitalier de l’Universite de Montreal. If the pilot project is a success, Larente expects to be setting up Cara screening centres in hospitals and clinics across Quebec. CHUM has 35,000 diabetics, 80% of whom have never had a retina screening. Once you are a diabetic you face a 50% chance of going blind.
“Our job,” Larente, Diagnos’ president said in an earlier interview, “is to screen those 35,000 diabetics and send the ones that are critical right to the ophthalmology department and mange the other ones. Manage means you come every year and you get your test done.”
Once the pilot project is completed Larente expects to see Cara screening facilities in Quebec hospitals and just as a successful pilot project in Mexico led to a government contract, he expects the CHUM pilot project to result in a contract with the Quebec Ministry of Health.
“This will actually reduce the cost to the government because now you are going to manage the diabetic population. When you start to have retinopathy you can treat the patient. There is diet, there are vitamins. There are small inexpensive treatments to make sure it doesn’t go to the critical stage. There is a very effective laser treatment for bleeding.”
The diabetic retinopathy market is growing at 6.8% CAGR and according to a news release issued by Million Insights will grow from US$5.9 billion in 2014, to US$10.11 billion in 2022.
During the presentation, Diagnos president Andre Larente, announced that while the company intended to keep on marketing to government health agencies it also intended to beef up its approach to targets like hospitals and health care providers.
Drawing on his own experience, Maclellan described why AI powered medical devices had an initial slow adoption rates. “People were afraid it would take their jobs.” That has now changed. “Once one hospital starts using it, Cara adoption will snowball.”
To show just how much AI driven platforms are gaining traction in medicine at the beginning of 2018 Research House Frost & Sullivan predicted that by 2025, 85% of surgical procedures are likely to be done by robots.
According to Market and Markets, the market for artificial intelligence applications in healthcare will grow from US$667.1 million in 2016 to US$ 7.98 billion in 2022, growing at a CAGR of 52.68% during the forecast period.
Diagnos’ product line is expanding. In July the company launched the first application in its Cardio product line, Cara HTA. The application uses the same fundus camera used for diabetic retinopathy to screen for hypertensive retinopathy. Cara HTA also monitors the efficacy of blood pressure treatments which will allow doctors to monitor and adjust treatment as necessary.
From a revenue standpoint, Cara HTA offers the same form of recurring revenues that screening for diabetic retinopathy does. Once the screening has been initially performed patients will require additional screenings on an annual or as needed basis.
The hypertension market is huge. Almost one in two adult Americans, for example, suffer from high blood pressure, a precursor to strokes and heart attacks.
Diagnos also has a third product in development, Cara Cardio which will screen for cardiovascular disease and debut during 2019. In September Diagnos signed two agreements. The first was with another Montreal-based company Optina Diagnostics, to provide a telemedicine platform based on Cara for a period of three years. Optina will use Diagnos Cloud Services to upload images generated by Optina’s hyperspectral camera for the early detection of Alzheimer’s.
The company believes that the agreement will attract other biotech companies that need a telemedicine platform. Cara includes a telemedicine platform that allows all the medical professionals involved to see the same picture. Additionally the company has already successfully incorporated blockchain technology to maintain patient confidentiality.
In September the company also signed a three year agreement with American company 20/20NOW to provide diabetic retinopathy screening services. 20/20NOW is a pioneer in ocular telehealth.
September has been a good month for Diagnos, the future should be even better.