Credit Suisse, https://www.credit-suisse.com an international organization, as part of their “Healthcare Disruptive Technologies & Innovations” series hosted Lou Silverman, Chairman and CEO and Andrea Clegg CFO at Advanced ICU Care (AICU) https://advancedicucare.com at a small group investor dinner held in New York City. AICU noted how the Tele-ICU market is advancing and discussed the growth and market opportunities ahead in future years.
AICU is the country’s largest and most experienced provider of 24x7x365 technology-enabled remote inpatient monitoring services. The company currently serves ICUs and telemetry units with over 1,500 beds in nearly 30 states.
The company serves more than 90 hospitals and more than 80K patients on an annual basis. A good portion of AICU’s business is in Tele-ICU but a year and half ago, the company expanded a second service line of business in telemetry monitoring for patients who are in hospitals but not in ICUs. AICU has no scaled commercial competitors in both Tele-ICU and inpatient telemetry markets.
Lou Silverman noted that the supply of intensivists is expected to be flat, while the number of ICU beds are expected to increase by 50% over time. The population over 65 uses the ICU three times more than a relatively younger population which could mean a 6x time increase in demand over the next several years. Due to the limited supply of intensivists and the cost to attract and retain them, most hospitals find it challenging to fully staff their ICUs with intensivists to the 24x7x365 gold standard which may lead to a gap in ICU performance and outcomes.
Advanced ICU Care primarily tries to solve that supply demand mismatch problem by leveraging technology-enabled clinical services. The company executives believe that telemedicine can positively impact the evolution of facility and care delivery processes and has proven to enhance clinical outcomes.
AICU uses a continuous model of Tele-ICU which means that its intensivist-led care teams are constantly monitoring the status of patients and even initiating care interventions, rather than waiting for a call from a bedside team to consult on an issue.
AICU characterizes the telemedicine market landscape in four key segments to include, in-home monitoring, continuous remote patient monitoring, 1-800-MD, and episodic telehealth. AICU primarily focuses on the continuous remote patient monitoring segment.
Clinically oriented telemedicine programs such as Tele-ICU integrate into existing clinical organizations. This requires collaboration and innovation around clinical workflows and communication protocols with individualized delineation of responsibilities between existing bedside teams and their telemedicine partners.
In terms of new markets, the company sees opportunities to expand their in-patient footprint, initiate post-acute services, and initiate international market development. AICU sees opportunities in the software-only market, device monitoring partnerships, and expanding and/or extending their proprietary HUB software capabilities.
The company’s HUB software has attracted some attention in the market so AICU is selectively looking at deploying the software in the other parts of the hospitals’ ecosystem. The HUB software makes it possible for multi-EMR integration, census management, clinical protocols and guidelines, plus useful for client-level workflow configuration and automation.
The HUB software helps to clinically prioritize which patients or situations, the company’s client providers should focus on and is now AICU’s key software platform.
For more information or to provide feedback on AICU, email Research Analyst Jailandra Singh at jailendra.singh@credit-suisse.com