Toronto, Ontario - The Newswire - October 08, 2020 - Ventripoint Diagnostics Ltd. ("Ventripoint" or the "Company"), (TSXV:VPT); (OTC:VPTDF) is pleased to announce that it has remotely installed the latest version of its whole-heart analysis system (VMS+3.0) in the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. It is one of the world's most respected centers devoted exclusively to cancer patient care, research, education and prevention as recorded by being ranked one of the top two hospitals for cancer care every year for the last 30 years.
"The first unit in the United State has been installed in a cancer hospital because patients who receive therapy for cancer often develop chronic heart conditions as the therapy is toxic to active cells, like heart muscle cells," stated Dr. George Adams, CEO and Executive Chairman of Ventripoint. "The deleterious effects of chemotherapy on the heart have been known for decades - it is time to improve the monitoring of heart function during therapy and adjust the treatments to minimize the damage."
This is the first installation of the VMS+3.0 in the United States. It is also the first VMS+3.0 unit which has been remotely installed in the United States and so demonstrates the universality of the installation process.
A key addition to the VMS+3.0 was a complete workstation to allow remote analysis of echocardiograms in viewing rooms within the hospital. Unlike Europe where the cardiologist captures and analyzes the images on the ultrasound unit, in the United States, sonographers collect the images into a standardized DICOM file and uploads them to an internal server (PACS) so they can be retrieved and analyzed by a cardiologists in a viewing room. Viewing rooms are equipped with workstations and high-resolution screens to optimize the images. Accordingly, the Company elected to incorporate a workstation into the VMS+3.0. While the VMS+3.0 is designed to deal with low-quality images and allow for analysis on the unit itself, it never hurts to have optimal viewing conditions.
An added benefit of the workstation is the sonographer can move on to the next patient while the analysis is being done in the viewing room and so maximize patient throughput, machine utilization and hospital revenues. This fits the workflow within North American hospitals and lowers the barrier to adoption of the VMS+3.0. Further, there is an existing billing code for doing a 3D reconstruction from a 2D ultrasound on a workstation and so hospitals in the United States can immediately bill extra for the VMS+3.0 analysis of the standard echocardiogram images.
The Company estimates that 40,000 VMS+3.0 units would be required to diagnose and monitor patients with hearts conditions due to congenital heart disease, pulmonary hypertension and cancer in North America and Europe. Additional units would be required for the rest of the world and for other patient populations such as COVID.
About MD Anderson Cancer Center
MD Anderson has been one of the top two cancer centers in the USA for decades. It receives the highest number of research grants from the National Cancer Institute and is the recognized leader in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The hospital sees approximately 1.5 million outpatients and performs 615,000 imaging exams a year. Last year more than 148,700 people sought the superior care that has made MD Anderson so widely respected -- 47,500 of whom were new patients. There were more than 11,600 patients enrolled in 1,360-plus clinical trials exploring innovative treatments. MD Anderson's cancer clinical trial program is one of the largest of its kind.
About Ventripoint Diagnostics Ltd.
Ventripoint has become an industry leader in the application of AI (Artificial Intelligence) to echocardiography. Ventripoint's VMS products are powered by its proprietary KBR technology, which is the result of a decade of development and provides accurate volumetric cardiac measurements equivalent to MRI. This affordable, gold-standard alternative allows cardiologists greater confidence in the management of their patients. Providing better care to patients serves as a springboard and basic standard for all of Ventripoint's products that guide our future developments. In addition, VMS+ is versatile and can be used with all ultrasound systems from any vendor supported by regulatory market approvals in the U.S., Europe and Canada.
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