Lidco Group – Keeping The Blood (And Cash) Flowing
Healthcare equipment firm LiDCO Group makes a range of monitoring devices that are designed to provide a practical, early warning of cardiovascular change.
Cardiovascular health is, of course, an important medical market. According to LiDCO, every year there are at least 10 million surgery and critical care patients who are involved in such monitoring procedures, but a significant majority of these patients are currently monitored only for blood pressure and not for cardiac output or oxygen delivery. So, the group developed a minimally-invasive product, disposables and other monitoring equipment that it believes will improve the standards of care and monitoring of high-risk patients both during and after surgery, reduce the incidence of adverse events in hospitals and reduce costs.
LiDCO’s technology was developed out of research conducted at London’s St Thomas’ Hospital. Today, the group’s current principal patent-protected technologies are a sensor device (known as the LiDCO System) and its monitoring software (the PulseCO System), which when used together provide a range of data concerning the performance of a patient’s heart and blood circulation.
In April 2008 the group launched LiDCOrapid, which interfaced with a standard wrist catheter and did not require calibration.
To support these technologies LiDCO has launched software in the form of LiDCOview, which is a PC-based toolset allowing users to download and analyse the data as well as generate reports, and LiDCOlive, which allows remote monitoring of a patient.
But the group aims to make its key revenues from the sales of consumables. With LiDCOplus the consumables are sensors and lithium chloride solution, while for LiDCOrapid the consumable is a patient-specific smartcard that retains specific details of the patient and allows a limited number of hours of monitoring.
For the 12 months to 31 January 2009, LiDCO reported that revenues were up 12% at £4.5m, while its pre-tax loss was down 10.9% at £1.8m. The company’s cash balance fell from £2.2m to £243,000 during the year.
More recently, LiDCO reported in a trading statement released in August that it had enjoyed a strong sales performance during its first half and that revenues would be significantly greater than those it achieved in H1 2009.
Earlier in the summer LiDCO signed an exclusive distribution agreement for its LiDCOrapid monitor with Aspect Medical Systems. Aspect has one of the biggest anaesthesia medical product sales teams in the US and the deal gives LiDCO full access to the US anaesthesia and surgery markets.
For the current financial year FinnCap forecasts that LiDCO will generate revenues of £5.6m and produce a pre-tax loss of £1.1m. But the broker sees LiDCO’s revenues and profitability improving markedly during its 2011 and 2012 financial years as sales are boosted by recurring revenues generated by the group’s installed base of monitors. So, 2011 should see revenues and pre-tax profits of £7.9m and £1m respectively, while 2012 is expected to generate £9.6m of revenues with £2.3m of profit.
Source: Proactive Investors
SonoSite Launches NanoMaxx™ With A Day At The Races
SonoSite recently celebrated the UK launch of the lightweight NanoMaxx point-of-care ultrasound tool by inviting its customers to a day at the races.
Held at several top racecourses, these events highlighted the ‘go anywhere’ portability of the NanoMaxx, and gave clinicians the opportunity to experience first-hand the performance and simplicity of the NanoMaxx’s unique ‘one button’ imaging.
Those attending the launch events were first past the post in ‘hands-on’ scanning with the NanoMaxx and saw the SonoSite Clinical Applications team demonstrating the systems in action. The NanoMaxx tool generated a great deal of interest from healthcare professionals in a wide range of specialities, demonstrating the versatility of the instrument for a broad spectrum of applications.
Each raceday also offered customers the chance to hear the benefits of this robust, user-friendly system straight from the horse’s mouth, putting their questions to SonoSite’s early access customers.
Dr James Pettit, a consultant intensivist at the Hull Royal Infirmary who has been trialling the NanoMaxx, described the new system: “The image quality is superb, and its portability makes it an excellent tool for rapid assessment of patients, complementing our M-Turbo® system for basic scanning applications. The NanoMaxx’s compact, intuitive design is well-suited to point-of-care scanning in a range of settings, and represents a robust and affordable system to help extend the use of hand-carried ultrasound for improved patient management.”
Tracey Byard, UK Manager for SonoSite, commented on the success of the three launch events: “Initial feedback of the NanoMaxx is that it is set to be another winner from the SonoSite stable!”
Issue: December 2009
iMDsoft®, a global leader in clinical information systems for perioperative, critical and acute care, has unveiled MVexpressTM, a complete anaesthesia information management system designed for rapid deployment. It supports and enhances the workflow from pre-op through intra-op to the post anaesthesia care unit and generates a complete, accurate, billable anaesthesia record, while freeing anaesthesiologists to devote more time to direct patient care rather than to paperwork.
Many hospitals and clinics do not have the resources to implement a fully customizable anaesthesia information management system and are looking for a solution that meets their needs. For such institutions, iMDsoft now offers an out-of-the-box product that incorporates over 10 years of experience in the anaesthesia environment throughout Europe. MVexpress has been configured to suit national requirements and is initially available for European customers in France and Germany.
Benefits of MVexpress include, rapid deployment, minimal resources required and it incorporates over a decade of best practices.