G Medical eyes huge market for clinical grade health monitors

Health monitoring service G Medical Innovations is on the brink of entering a huge health tech vertical with a unique product, writes tech expert Tim Knapton of TechVoyage.

In a world that’s fitness crazy and device hungry, it’s no surprise to see AppleWatch sales growing at more than 50 per cent annualised and FitBit more than 20 per cent to more than $US2 billion a year.

And yet — like most retail health monitoring devices — neither is clinically proven.

That’s where G Medical Innovations comes in.

G Medical (ASX:GMV) has developed two products to digitally monitor health and hence reduce inefficiencies in healthcare delivery, improve quality of care and make healthcare more personal and precise.

The company’s ‘Prizma’ Medical Smartphone Case turns a smartphone into a clinical grade mobile medical monitor to measure vital signs such as ECG, respiration, oxygen saturation, heart rate, temperature and stress analysis.

Prizma eliminates the need for patients to make extensive trips to visit their doctors. Instead, they can plug into the Prizma device and share clinical grade medical data with their healthcare providers via the cloud.

The device addresses increasingly long waiting periods to see physicians and receive test results. It also provides a continual source and a live record of key medical metrics — and has been designed to be affordable.

With CE Mark and FDA approval now achieved — and CFDA for China and TGA for Australia expected very shortly — G Medical will launch its global sales efforts imminently.

It has also signed distribution and sales agreements with a number of different partners such as Silverlake and Guanzhuo Sino-Israel Bio Investment Fund for China and Wenlo for US.

Another product G Medical is almost ready to market is its G Medical Patch and Vital Signs System, which is essentially a disposable patch with a separate attachable ‘brain’. It is a real time bio-sensor monitoring system for patients in hospitals and clinics that continues post discharge via Prizma.

The key benefits of its product suite are comprehensive and live medical profiles, portable remote monitoring, and direct communication with care-givers to enhance the patient-doctor relationship and freeing up valuable time for healthcare professionals.

Longer term its extensive database of patient results should be highly valuable in terms of predictive solutions.

G Medical has a revenue model that will generate B2C and B2B sales and a growing annuity stream of licensing or reimbursement revenue.

It’s the only company of its type in the world making clinical grade solutions from hardware to medical support services and has applied for patents in 150 countries.

The company has an extensive tech road map, driving plans to add further solutions such as tests and measurements of glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, total cholesterol, uric acid and more.

After listing earlier this year with a $12 million raising, G Medical has enjoyed a 130 per cent gain from its IPO price. Its market cap is now more than $140 million.

That may at first blush appear high for a pre-revenue company but G Medical is on the brink of entering a huge health tech vertical with a unique product.

Tim Knapton is the founder and CEO of online tech research and finance marketplace TechVoyage. Its video/financial database and digital broadcast platform provide a more efficient way for investors to appraise listed and unlisted tech companies and for entrepreneurs to finance, acquire and exit them.

Previously Tim was Head of Corporate Broking at Deutsche Australia and before that ran a research department for a leading broking house. Tim has also been a freelance tech/finance journalist for more than 20 years and a columnist with The Australian Financial Review, The Bulletin, BRW, Shares and Australian Business.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.