Dear fellow shareholders,
Today we announced that I have taken on the role of Executive Chairman to work with executive team help drive the commercialisation strategy. I have been Chairman of HeraMED since August 2018 and during that time, our focus has evolved from an initial focus on technology design, development, and manufacturing to the current focus on commercialisation in the key target markets of Australia and USA, and scaling resources to generate sales.
I absolutely believe we have the gold standard technology that will transform remote patient monitoring in maternity and today represents an important inflection point with a rapidly growing pipeline of commercial opportunities across multiple customer verticals and geographies. I am personally very excited about the opportunity to provide my strategic expertise to grow our commercialisation strategy and am motivated by the opportunity of playing my part in the digital revolution in maternity. I am writing to shareholders today, to tell you a bit more about my background and my plans.
Throughout my career, I have specialised in commercialising medical technologies, establishing and leading high performing sales and marketing teams, developing strategic clinical and commercial relationships that drive revenue and deliver shareholder value. I have gained significant experience in the commercialisation of medical devices, working in Australia, USA, and Israel and have a strong understanding of the USA and Australian healthcare markets, as well as regulatory and compliance requirements.
During my time at Nanosonics, I gained valuable leadership experience, and I was lucky to work with some exceptional people. One of those was Keith Koby who most recently was Senior Vice President, North America at Nanosonics, where he led the team that transformed the ultrasound probe disinfection market and established the technology as the standard of care across North America. Keith established a very successful market for Nanosonics and led the North American team which achieved record sales resulting in spectacular growth from 168 units sold to >26,000 units in just 10 years.
Since Keith joined HeraMED as President, North America, in January 2023, he has already made significant progress in building a strong and rapidly growing pipeline of opportunities and I am looking forward to working closely with Keith again as we progress the pipeline of potential commercial opportunities.
Another key appointment for HeraMED was Anoushka Gungadin who joined in June 2022 as Director of Strategic Partnerships in Australia and New Zealand. Anoushka has highly relevant experience and is already demonstrating her entrepreneurial skills in developing a rapidly growing pipeline of commercial partnership opportunities.
In just a few months, Keith and Anoushka have successfully identified the most rapid market entry points in their respective markets, while maintaining a focus on the most lucrative targets that may have longer regulatory, sales and implementation cycles.
In order to maximise sales, HeraMED will adopt a global commercialisation strategy with a bespoke, localised focus. The healthcare market in USA is unique and requires a different strategy to Australia. In both markets, we need to ‘think big and act fast’, to capitalise on the unique opportunity to establish HeraCARE as the standard of care for remote maternity monitoring. We are in an enviable position because our technology has relevance across several verticals which reduces risk and should support an accelerating rollout.
I am personally encouraged by our near 100% success in converting trials to contracts however I acknowledge that the speed of execution to date has not been where it should have been. In my new role, I will be personally taking responsibility to ensure we have the right team, systems and processes in place to ensure the commercialisation strategy is a success. Our contracts take time to get through the approvals process, however, once adopted, these clinical teams become champions who advocate for our technology.
The Australian Opportunity
In Australia, we have initially been focused on the Public Hospital systems and State Government contracts where we have formed partnerships with Strategic Commercial partners such as Joondalup Health Campus and Gold Coast Hospital. We have also formed partnerships with two leading private obstetrician practices that see offering HeraCARE technology as an opportunity to improve the efficiency of their service provision as well as providing a competitive edge. Furthermore, we recognise the value these clinics represent as key influencers in the private healthcare sector. Discussions are also underway with digital service providers, a private health insurance company and Corporate Health insurers.
We recognise the importance of remote pregnancy monitoring in regional and more isolated areas where access to healthcare is more difficult. Furthermore, we are looking into ways to offer HeraCARE in order to improve maternity health outcomes in First Australian communities.
The USA opportunity
In recent years, there has been an increasing challenge known as ‘maternity deserts’ in the US whereby 36% of US States offer no obstetrics support. This has created an enormous challenge for significant numbers of pregnant mothers to access the necessary obstetrics services due to long travel times. There has also been an associated increase in maternal mortality rates to 26 in every 100,000 births, representing one of the highest in the developed world. The USA is ranked 55th in the OECD countries for maternity outcomes and has one of the highest investments in maternity and foetal healthcare.
There are significant opportunities remote pregnancy monitoring across the private and public hospitals, aggregated clinics, and hospital groups (IDNs) with multiple verticals representing opportunities for HeraCARE. The corporate employee benefits schemes that offer health insurance as a perk to attract and retain employees is unique to USA and HeraCARE is already being viewed as a valuable employee Reward by US Corporations via the US employee rewards program Fond. Under the leadership of Keith Koby, HeraMED is focused on capitalising on the unique and sizeable opportunity that exists across several sales verticals in the USA.
In conclusion, wherever we are in the world we are a united HeraMED team. David Groberman will continue to lead an impressive team in Israel and I look forward to working closely with him. The sales team must work with the Israeli team’s depth of product and domain knowledge, manufacturing, logistics and the ability to integrate the product into hospitals and other systems. We have the resources and vast knowledge of our CMO Dr Arturo Wechsler. Sales is not just a pitch and a contract; it is the process of providing end to end optimal customer service and satisfaction.
I want shareholders to know I am very committed to this business and look forward to executing on our commercialisation strategy to capitalise on a truly unique opportunity to transform remote monitoring in maternity care.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Ron Weinberger
Executive Chairman
HeraMED Limited
e. ron@hera-med.com