Deltex Medical Group plc (LON:DEMG) Chief Executive Officer Ewan Phillips caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the launch of TruFlow, the improvements for physicians, encouraging sales and reducing the number of dedicated trainers
Q1: Now Deltex Medical Group have just announced the launch of TruFlow, can you give us a bit of background on how you came to develop the new probe?
A1: Yes, we’ve got a technology, oesophageal Doppler, which is a very very high end technology, the sort of things we can do the alternatives to get there are very expensive, tens of thousands of pounds, we really stripped that down to get right into the central circulation and get a very good view point of what’s going on. The precise engineering background, that’s had a very small focal beam which means you have to line up the small beam with a very small window to do that, which is well worth it when you get there but it does mean that there’s quite a knack to getting there. So we’ve been looking for a long time to find ways of having a larger focal beam so it’s easier to get the right focus and holds it focus better, particularly when moving a patient around. That’s why we’ve been doing that, the step we’ve got is to re-orientate the crystals we use which just changes the way the ultrasound flows through the body which means you’ve got a much bigger focal point and a wider beam and the results have been great.
Q2: I think you’ve touched on it there but what are the improvements that physicians can expect to see when they’re using them?
A2: Well it means that the new user in particular will find it much easier to get the knack of focussing these things, experienced users for someone who can put it in and get a signal in a matter of seconds there isn’t much better you can do than that. The sort of feedback we’ve had is that the performance relative to the old one is ‘outstanding’, ‘exceptional’, ‘fantastic’ which are words, frankly in the medical device business, you don’t get very often from your customers so excellent from that. The real thing that they like is that once you’re in position there, you hold that position and are able to focus much better. These days with types of surgery, they’ll put patients facedown, lie them down on the bed and then tip the bed have them facedown, head down, now that position if you have to re-focus the probe it’s awkward, physically awkward for the doctor, so having something that holds the focus better just makes it that much easier to use which always just removes the barrier to getting on and doing it.
Q3: Do you think that the release of the new probe will encourage sales?
A3: Yes it will, Deltex Medical Group have got two different areas there. We are expanding in pretty much all of our export markets and particularly focussing on the States at the moment, there this isn’t an improved probe this is just the probe now and it’s an easy to use technology that you can learn quickly so that’s a real positive. The UK, which is in a more difficult time with all the NHS’s problems at the moment and people are being sort of bullied by procurement to spend as little as possible, is anything we do that keeps it fresh and new will help the whole sales process on top of all the evidence and reassuring people that the benefit of using this is huge and actually the downside of not using these probes, to see what’s going on in the circulation, is bad for patients and it wastes a lot of money for the complications you fail to avoid.
Q4: Will the increased use of the probe mean the number of dedicated trainers can decrease as less training is needed to use the monitor and the associated probe?
A4: Yes, very much so. Historically, the suggestion was it takes about 10 to 12 probing sessions/patients before you could expect a user to be independent. Now we’ve been working on that over the last 2 or 3 years, we’re bringing in learning modules which has cut the learning curve, we allow people to train with a simulator which is a mannequin where you can get the knack and do all of those sorts of things like that, now the probe just being easier I suspect it’s probably down to getting nearer to the 2 or 3 patients before you’ve got the knack. Doesn’t mean we don’t have to educate people into what the images we generate, what they mean and what they’re telling them about the circulation but that’s a much higher level education rather than the sort of manual process of getting the knack. So yes, it’ll be less effort from Deltex Medical Group but it’ll also be higher value effort in terms of really driving forward better healthcare.
