SMART Monitoring ECG screening to be incorporated into the Wellspring’s Health and Wellness Program in pharmacies, health clubs, physician offices and long-term care facilities
TORONTO, ONTARIO – CardioComm Solutions, Inc. (TSX VENTURE:EKG) (“CardioComm Solutions” or the “Company”), a global medical provider of consumer heart monitoring and medical electrocardiogram (“ECG”) software solutions, today announced it has entered into a sales and marketing agreement with Wellspring Medical, LLC. (“Wellspring”) for the HeartCheck™ Handheld ECG devices and SMART Monitoring ECG services into health and wellness verticals in the United States in 2016.
Wellspring is launching a "Screening and Prevention" program in partnership with retail pharmacies across the United States that will allow pharmacists to offer cardiac and pulmonary disease screening to their customers. The introduction of the HeartCheck™ ECG devices will provide pharmacists a proven method to monitor the ECGs of people diagnosed with cardiac and/or pulmonary disease, to assist in identifying early onset of cardiac disease for at-risk patients, to follow people for potential adverse drug events related to medications they have been prescribed and to encourage physician follow-up evaluations.
Pharmacies will offer the ECG screening services under a fee-for-service plan that will be coordinated by Wellspring. Wellspring will provide HeartCheck™ ECG devices for use by pharmacists to take a 30 second ECG recording (a cardiac rhythm strip) to monitor for the presence or absence of an arrhythmia. After ECGs are recorded, they are uploaded to CardioComm Solutions’ cloud-based SMART Monitoring ECG service. Physician interpreted ECG reports will be returned back to Wellspring’s participating pharmacies within 24 hours. To facilitate this new program, CardioComm Solutions has partnered with California-based CompuMed Inc. to provide board-certified cardiologist ECG interpretations. Wellspring will also provide retail pharmacies access to the HeartCheck™ ECG PEN (consumer sales) and the HeartCheck™ Handheld ECG monitors (prescription required) for sale to retail pharmacy customers.
CardioComm Solutions’ HeartCheck™ products are small electrocardiograph devices cleared as Class II medical devices that are easy to use, small, portable, and can record, save and replay multiple ECG recordings. With an internal memory, ECG recordings can be taken at any time and ECG review requests performed when needed. ECG readings can be taken with the device held in both hands (called a Lead I rhythm strip) or by holding the device with the right hand and pressing the opposite side of the device against the left side of the chest or ribs (called Lead II rhythm strip). While a lead I ECG can be used to monitor for arrhythmias, use of a lead II ECG recording is preferred by physicians when screening for arrhythmias which provides is a market advantage for the HeartCheck™ ECG devices over other portable ECG monitors. The CardioComm Solutions ECG service also does not rely on emailing ECG reports as part of the review process and as such is fully HIPAA compliant.
Under the agreement, Wellspring will manage the training and hiring of sales representatives who will promote the HeartCheck™ based SMART Monitoring ECG Services within the USA. Those representatives will visit pharmacies, physicians, chiropractors and allied health professionals to offer the HeartCheck™ products and ECG reading services for use in their practices and with their patients. Wellspring will also participate in related conferences, tradeshows, and exhibitions to help promote CardioComm Solutions’ products. Based on the growth of sales, Wellspring will also work to establish an ECG reading service within the USA that will utilize the CardioComm Solutions SMART Monitoring ECG Service to read ECGs from the Wellspring customer base.
The Company will provide updates on the progress of Wellspring sales activities over the next quarter. These activities will complement additional USA sales and marketing efforts scheduled for 2016.
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 [email protected].
