Good news today and Dear Friend (Dr. George Adams) Attached is today’s News Release concerning the financing of the Company to continue to drive adoption of the Company’s whole-heart analysis products. Here is some background:
1. We were able to raise ~1.1M earlier in the summer through a convertible debenture offering, but this was less than the $4-5M we were looking to raise to allow us to continue to effectively market the VMS+3.2 and finish the regulatory process for VMS+4.0.
2. We had a number of inquiries from non-accredited investors, who wanted to invest on the last round, but were prevented from doing so including employees and people closely associated with the Company. The LIFE financing is a new process that allows non-accredited investors to invest in a listed company and so we have initiated an offering for these people.
3. We also had investors wishing to participate in the convertible debenture offering, but the timing was not right for them. We now have a lead investor for the new offering and will be working to find others who are interested in investing.
4. Unfortunately, raising capital in today’s market has been extremely difficult for small companies. We have actually been doing well compared to many others who have had to shut down operations and let staff go. Similarly, our share price has held up well compared to others over the summer, but it is still below where it should be as the markets are focused on large-cap companies.
5. Our staff and associates are energized by interactions with customers and we have many top cardiac centers looking at the VMS+. Announcements from these revered hospitals will be forthcoming.
6. The recent grant of a license from Health Canada for VMS+4.0 will now allow us to market this revolutionary advancement in Canada and we have already begun that process. The Company has submitted an application to the US-FDA and soon will submit for European CE Mark.
7. Hospitals are still dealing with significant staff shortages in radiology and echocardiography with even major centres reporting 40% reduction of capacity. Nevertheless, we are upgrading existing users to VMS+3.2 and doing on-site demonstrations for potential customers with everyone marvelling at the capabilities of the VMS+.
8. The trend in cardiology is to AI-assisted automated analysis for screening with point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) on images from handheld smaller systems used by non-cardiologists to identify people who might have a significant heart problem. This is good trend for the Company as it means more people referred for an in-depth echocardiogram to verify the initial findings and actually diagnose the patient’s condition, which is what the VMS+ is so good at. One day we may enable a POCUS device to use the VMS+ technology but for now, empowering echocardiographers to easily analyze the whole heart is a better way to improve cardiac diagnostics.
Thank you for your support and interest as we continue to improve cardiac diagnostics for everyone, everywhere and especially for children born with a heart defect.
Regards,
Dr. George Adams ICD.D