Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with EchoIQ (ASX:EIQ), CEO Dustin Haines
Lel Smits: EchoIQ has delivered a share price gain of more than 500% over the past year as investors back its AI-powered decision support technology for structural heart disease. With FDA-cleared clinically validated solutions that use existing echocardiographic measurements to provide rapid clinical insights without image analysis, EchoIQ is building a differentiated position in cardiovascular diagnostics. I’m joined today by EchoIQ’s CEO, Dustin Haynes, to discuss its research collaboration with Mayo Clinic, binding heads of agreement with ProMedicus, a $110 million institutional placement, and access to an exclusive imaging dataset designed to further strengthen its AI competitive moat.
Dustin, welcome to the Stock Network.
Dustin Haines: Well, thank you and this is a great opportunity and I really appreciate you giving me the chance to speak to your network.
Lel Smits: I’m excited to learn more and about all of your recent news.
You’ve secured a research collaboration with Mayo Clinic and of course this is a major endorsement given its global reputation in cardiovascular medicine. Dustin, what opportunities do you think that this is going to unlock for EchoIQ and also how important is world-leading clinical validation in terms of accelerating this commercial adoption?
Dustin Haines: Yeah, look, I mean obviously coming out of Australia, you know that the Mayo Clinic is a globally renowned institution and for us to be able to be aligned not only in doing validation work with the Mayo Clinic, to be able to look at our heart failure model, but also to be able to do an additional first-of-its-kind-ever research project on cardio-oncology with the Mayo Clinic really demonstrates, I think, the value of what our technology is doing both from an innovation perspective but also from a clinical management perspective. So for us, the Mayo Clinic is a tremendous partner and the great thing about the Mayo Clinic is not only have we done these clinical programs with Mayo Clinic, we’ve also signed a first-of-its-kind three-year commercial agreement with the Mayo Clinic on the completion of a heart failure clearance, which the Mayo Clinic has identified as one of the best technologies to help find patients and diagnose patients with heart failure, which is a really complicated disease right now in the U.S. and really kind of globally.
So this research collaboration is just one of many, I think, that we’re going to be having with the Mayo Clinic as we go forward.
Lel Smits: In terms of another pretty valuable partner, you recently secured a binding heads of agreement with ProMedicus. Of course, this is one of Australia’s most successful global healthcare technology companies.
Can you really give us an overview here in terms of just how transformational this relationship could become? Also, really, what does it mean in terms of the potential for expanding access to hospitals and clinicians worldwide?
Dustin Haines: Yeah, and I’ll echo that. I think what Sam and the team over there at ProMedicus have done is really an example, I think, of what an Australian company can really do to be a global leader. And I’ll tell you, this is really exciting for me because, and I’ve joked with Sam about this sometimes, but as we sat down and we talked about the two companies, I think we are mutually helping each other in this space and really helping to solidify how we can better diagnose patients with cardiovascular disease.
Obviously, Sam as a PACS provider and us as an AI-assisted tool really sits hand in hand. So, I think this really was a strategic partnership in the making for some time because we actually saw the value together as two companies. So, we’re really excited about this opportunity.
Sam’s growing in the cardiovascular space. He’s been very clear over the last year and a half that that’s where they’re pivoting from radiology. And obviously, as a company like us that’s growing rapidly in the cardiovascular space, having two of these kind of rapid-growing companies together just makes sense from a value proposition to the customer.
So, I think what you’re going to see from us is the ability for us to not only help integrate hospitals more quickly with a holistic platform for both PACS providing like Sam, as well as an AI-assisted tool, but you’re going to see this long-term kind of growth strategy between the two companies in cardiovascular disease. So, for us, this is actually one of those really perfect partnerships that just makes sense. And it just happens we’re two Australian companies doing some really cool work.
Lel Smits: Yes. And on that growth, you clearly are growing rapidly. You’ve had a gain of more than 500% in your share price over the last year.
You also raised $110 million. What does this capital really allow you to achieve, do you think, over the next few years? Also, what milestones do you think the investors should be watching?
Dustin Haines: Yeah. I mean, the capital raise is really now putting us in a position where we can accelerate all of the commercial focus that we have, as well as our research and development pipeline.
So, the capital is going to be used almost instantaneously to start helping us drive that acceleration to revenue on the commercial side. And I think we’ve given the market some really clear indications of what the pipeline is going to look like coming forward. I think we’re one of these unique companies because of the access to the data that we have to be able to train our models.
We’re really able to be able to look at multiple disease states in cardiovascular disease very quickly. So, the capital is allowing me to have that flexibility to really focus on how we’re going to deliver the commercial aspects of the business. And I think the market’s seen that very quickly and rapidly accelerating in our growth.
And then, of course, the R&D pipeline is going to allow us to have that future-proofing of the business as we go forward. So, we’re really looking forward to the opportunity here to show the market what we can do from an investment perspective as we move forward. But I think ultimately, at the end of the day, what this speaks to is just the investor sentiment that’s behind this.
And I’m really, really, really super excited about the way the shareholders and the investors have seen this story, understood what we’re trying to do, understand what this technology can do in terms of what it can have an impact on overall patient outcomes. And ultimately, they’re taking our story and putting the trust behind it with the dollars. And I think that’s really an important kind of sentiment to what we’re doing in the healthcare space.
Lel Smits: And Dustin, finally, in terms of your competitive mode, you’ve strengthened your competitive position through an exclusive imaging dataset providing access to one of the largest collections of echocardiographic data available. How significant do you think this data advantage is in terms of developing that future of AI products? And also, where do you think the company’s next wave of growth is going to come from?
Dustin Haines: Yeah, great question. Yeah, listen, I think that the competitive mode that we’re building around us, and I always describe this to folks as really building beachheads in front of us.
You’ve got your IP protection, and we’ve done a really good job of creating the patents around the algorithm and the technology. And we’re doing some innovative things in this space. In fact, we just filed 10 new patents here just recently on the way that we look at the model.
So that’s a beachhead in a competitive mode. Then if you’re in the AI space, data is the new oil, right? I mean, that’s how important data is now. And those who have it are going to have a competitive advantage.
And so for us to have the privilege of having exclusive access to now, because we just acquired the second largest database in the world, two of the largest databases of echocardiograms in the world, that really becomes that competitive mode for us to really say, how do we not only take the IP that we have, but actually apply it to the sensitivity and specificity of our algorithms? And then you start to think about what you do in terms of regulatory modes and how you actually get these products cleared and how you actually work through the FDA and the regulators. You start to see that we build this really nice beachhead in front of us. And so for us, the competitive data set allows us to have that moat in terms of having that new access to oil.
You’ve got the IP protection, and now you’ve got the regulatory moats that we’re building. So for me, I think we’re sitting in a position that not only allows us to be incredibly successful today, but really for the future. And I think where you start to see the future growth coming from is we’ve got new product indications coming.
So today I have aortic stenosis and heart failure. You’re going to see the technology move towards cardio-oncology. You’re going to see it towards hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, pulmonary hypertension, mitral valve and tricuspid galvaric regurgitation.
So I can list a laundry list of diseases we’re going to look at to actually give that future growth opportunity in front of us. And then of course, everything stems on how you get reimbursed for the technology. And we’re seeing some really great movement there from the US government on how we’re going to have the access to that as well.
So I think future-proofing the business from a competitive perspective on the moat is important, but then it’s about what that future growth looks like with the products and the pipeline coming.
Lel Smits: Dustin, thank you for the update on EchoIQ. Look forward to following the future of the company.
Dustin Haines: Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. I’ll come back anytime. This is a great time.
Ends