Oventus Medical Limited Launches New Lab in Lab Sites
April 26, 2020 at 08:35 pm EDT
Oventus Medical Ltd. announce new contracts and site launches for its Lab in Lab business model and provides commentary on how interest in Oventus' oral devices is being driven by concern regarding CPAP's potential role in spreading the COVID-19 virus. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine 1, 2 has communicated the risk that CPAP may contribute to the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The issue is that the CPAP machines may aerosolize the virus when the patient exhales. Anyone who is in the room with the person using the device could be at increased risk of contracting COVID-19. The Oventus team is experienced in virtual patient management and remote practice management and has swiftly put in place key initiatives to enable existing Lab in Lab sites to continue to identify OSA patients for treatment. The Company has moved to provide online or phone consultations (telehealth) to complete verification as required to have a payer (or insurer) cover device costs and to schedule appointments for patients to be scanned for Oventus oral devices. sites prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. Oventus is now working with customers across those sites using its telehealth model to screen and book patients in to receive treatment as soon as the relevant sites are able to safely deliver treatment. While patient bookings for scans slowed through March and early April, the conversion rate in terms of the number of bookings for new devices has increased, supported by the implementation of telehealth. Telehealth consultations are driving a growing pipeline of scan appointments with booking times being adjusted regionally to correspond with the reopening of businesses across North America. A contract expansion has been put in place with existing customer, The Center for Sleep and Chronobiology. Under this agreement, The Centre for Sleep and Chronobiology extends the number of sites contracted under the Lab in Lab model with Oventus from 7 to 8, on the same terms as the original agreement with a minimum of 20 device orders per month once fully operational on the same three year term. Additionally, a new agreement awarding Oventus with a Primary Vendor Status has been signed with Strong Denture and Snoring Clinics for both supply of O2Vent Optima and clinical support services. Oventus expects the new sites to contribute to revenues from May onwards. These new agreements take the total number of clinical delivery sites contracted to provide O2Vent Optima devices to patients across the U.S. and Canada to 45 locations. The Oventus team has been training customers remotely to enable the full launch of four additional Lab in Lab sites, with two locations in Tennessee and two locations in South Carolina.