TORONTO, ONTARIO – CardioComm Solutions, Inc. (“CardioComm” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE:EKG) is participating in a series of meetings organized by the Ontario Trade Commission in partnership with Global Affairs Canada which has led to a delegation visit to Japan and Korea from February 20th to 27th.
Through the assistance of the Trade Commission, meetings were held in November 2017 with visiting Japanese hospital representatives in Toronto in advance of CardioComm’s visit to Japan. While in Japan and Korea, CardioComm has meetings set with additional hospital/medical groups and will have a booth presence in the Ontario Pavilion during the Medical Japan 2018 International Medical Expo & Conference. Medical Japan (www.medical-jpn.jp/en/) is one of the most important healthcare shows in Japan and was visited by over 29,000 visitors from the hospital, manufacturing, importation and distributors sectors in 2017. The Company confirms that during the exposition discussions on distribution opportunities in Japan, Korea, Singapore and Thailand will be held.
CardioComm is actively evaluating the Japanese, Korean and other regional markets for the clearance and sales of its newest HeartCheck™ ECG monitoring devices and introduction of its GEMS™ based SMART Monitoring ECG service. CardioComm’s visit to Japan is at an opportune time as there have been directives issued from a panel under the Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry introducing new medical fee reimbursements related to the implementation of telemedicine platforms. Effective April 1, 2018, new fees for doctors offering counseling over the internet, as well as for telemedicine based services, will take effect including a fee for mobile ECG monitoring at a value of 1500 JPY (approximately Cdn$18) per ECG. The Japanese government has also revised the medical device regulatory review process to shorten and standardize the review time for medical device approval which will help foreign medical device companies to get their products on the Japanese market sooner. CardioComm itself has almost 20 years of Class II medical device clearances with Health Canada and the FDA and will have ISO 13485:2016 under MDSAP which will facilitate such regulatory review.
According to the Ontario Ministry of International Trade, Japan is the world’s 3rd largest medical market with high stability and valued at US$527 billion. Their ever increasing rate of aged population drives the medical needs for cost effective solutions for medical monitoring the elderly ay home. In addition, the Japanese medical device market relies heavily on imported products with imported medical devices accounting for 49% of the devices used. In its first four days of meetings the Company has received interest from several organizations looking to capitalize on the new regulations related to remote patient monitoring and telemedicine. These groups are seeking a credible and proven ECG management platform for providing remote ECG monitoring services to hospitals and private patient care management groups. CardioComm’s ECG management software is well recognized as a proven telemedicine platform capable of managing one to 12 lead ECG monitoring devices with ECG recording durations ranging from 30 days of continuous recordings to 30 seconds. Greatest interest has been shown in Bluetooth connected hand held ECG devices as well as wearable 12 lead ECG technologies, both of which CardioComm is well supported for by well established relationships with device manufacturers. CardioComm is also looking for new ECG monitoring hardware technologies developed in Japan for introduction under the HeartCheck™ brand into the North American markets.
To learn more about the CardioComm Solutions’ products, please see the Company’s websites www.theheartcheck.com and www.cardiocommsolutions.com or contact the Company at sales@cardiocommsolutions.com.
