HeraMED Limited (1I4.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today's HeraMED webinar to take you through yesterday's announcement with respect to the agreement reached with Gold Coast University Hospital. On the call, we've got David Groberman, Founder and CEO of HeraMED; as well as Anoushka Gungadin, who led the conversation with Gold Coast and is now an integral part of the team with respect to leading the commercialization efforts in Australia as Director of Strategic Partnerships. David, I might hand over to you to make some introductory comments, and then we'll listen to Anoushka, who has been very involved in the process. Thanks.

Thank you very much, Tim. So good morning, everyone. As Tim mentioned, for those of you who don't know me yet, I'm David Groberman, the CEO and Co-Founder at HeraMED. I'm joining you for your knowledge from Tel Aviv. So it's actually the middle of the night for me. I know it's been a while since we last met, and I'm generally thankful for your ongoing support, patience and understanding. It is my strong belief that today's webinar following by our announcement yesterday is part of a significant momentum that our company is going through. And it is our intention to make these interactions with all of you, our shareholders and supporters, more frequent and more intimate. I am super excited to be joined on this webinar today by Anoushka, our new Director of Strategic Partnerships for Australia and New Zealand. For some of you, it might be the first time that you'll meet her, so just wait. She really is a very impressive person and a corporate rock star if you ask me. Anoushka joined us just several months ago, and she brings a wealth of experience in leading and developing partnerships with large organizations, both on the private as well as the public and government sectors. Specifically, Anoushka has a proven track record in navigating successfully deals with some health care institutions and in driving growth and delivering results. So we are, here at HeraMED, really thrilled and fortunate to have her on board, and we look forward to the valuable contributions that she's bringing to our team. Today's announcement is probably the perfect proof to Anoushka's capabilities, and I believe that this is just the first out of many that will follow. Now today, we are delighted to be announcing the new strategic partnership with one of Australia's leading health care providers, the Gold Coast Hospital, representing probably our first major win with a government establishment on the East Coast of Australia and a sizable institution as well with approximately 5,000 pregnancies a year. The Gold Coast Hospital is highly regarded as a leader in the digital transformation of health care. They are pioneers and future focused, and we share the same vision of leveraging innovation and technology to bring better care at lower cost to the wider population. So before I hand it over to our rock star, Anoushka, I want to congratulate her on leading this negotiation. Anoushka managed to navigate this process with her unique style combining flexibility and creativity with professionalism. Over to you, Anoushka.

Thank you, David. Thank you for the very kind words. Hello, everyone. This is my very first time joining you here and speaking on behalf of HeraMED. I may have met some of you in a face to face or other forum last year. So I joined the team last year, and I'm working with a really, really incredible team based in Tel Aviv, and what happened today that we're talking about is a team effort. So I joined last year, and I am incredibly proud of having signed this deal with Gold Coast University Hospital, a major player in this field recognized in Australia and also internationally. Last year, we secured our very first private practice trial as well on the East Coast here in Melbourne. So as part of our engagement with private health, public health, this is another milestone in here, and we continue our conversations with health care providers, be it insurance companies or the platform. Gold Coast, it might be worth spending a little bit of time on Gold Coast Hospital. They have engaged in this digital transformation very consciously. They have a plan for 2021 to 2024. The overall vision is to change the patient experience. It's very much patient centric, which aligns with our values. And so they did a whole first phase, and we are coming in, in this phase of implementation. Now it is about bringing partnerships in, about bringing innovation and in the process of -- I'm going to use their words and look at my notes here. It's about value creation and realization to validate outcomes. And they are looking to partner with organization that is going to digitalize the workflow as well as educate both the staff and the patient. And for those who know about HeraCARE, we are a perfect partner to be able to do that. A major point in this partnership is about hospital without walls. So it's hospital at home. The trial will be with 90 pregnancies, high-risk pregnancies that are at home. And we know what HeraCARE can do. We know what it has done with our partners in Joondalup. There has been consultation with the team here at Gold Coast and the Joondalup team. And this is a new user case, really looking at the high-risk pregnancies at home care. So we're very delighted in learning as much as they will be in this process going forward. We engaged -- we started this major engagement in November last year. And for anyone who has worked with government, we have had the Christmas break in between, and here we are, we have signed a partnership in March in Tel Aviv. In fact, the Executive Director was in Israel, David, and you met with him. And they were there for a visit with Sheba as well and with us, so a short period of time with a lot that has been done. I engaged top-down and bottom-up. I must have had 2, 3 dozen conversations, meetings, visited them and engaged with their team, in the research team, the clinical team, the midwife team, the tech team as well as the leadership team. So a lot of things move alongside rather than waiting for one and to finish then the other one to start. I have to say, I am incredibly proud of what the team has built here because we went through the extensive due diligence process, and while it required a lot of our resources and time, but we met all of them. So I think this is testament to what has been built and the vision that David has had for the company. And I can talk personally, having had 2 children, gone through pregnancy in China, I wish I had HeraMED and HeraBEAT at that time. And I know when we're looking at some of the KPIs that we have discussed with the research team, a lot of the patient experience, a lot of the comfort from home, bringing -- pregnancy is a family affair and to be able to create that experience from a mom's perspective. So these are some of the KPIs, some of the outcomes that we are now working with the research team, which is another part of this partnership used to create and scope this out and really go and measure a number of different outcomes-based for moms as well as for the clinicians. I may -- I might hand it back to you now, David. I think I covered the process and shared a bit about Gold Coast. I might -- before I do that, I might also mention that this is the first component of this partnership. It is a partnership. We will hear more and talk more about research as well as we continue this conversation with them. David, over to you.

Thank you, Anoushka. I think you covered almost all the aspects of this partnership and how excited we are about it and how strong the potential is. I might just add just a few more points. As Anoushka mentioned, I was very lucky to spend some time with the leadership and actually the Gold Coast Executive Director of Strategy, Transformation and Major Capital, Sandip, that Anoushka made the connection, warming up and really prepared everything in advance. And then we met in Israel while they were visiting Sheba that actually made the connection and the recommendation and introduced us. And we enjoyed a very professional, insightful and, I would say, practical and very much business and monetization-focused discussion, which caught me a bit by surprise, generally about the sector and definitely about the significant opportunities that both of us envisioned that the HeraCARE solution can bring. I was also quite surprised and obviously very happy to learn how much they are focused, putting a lot of weight and resources in the Gold Coast Hospital and dedicating time, money, staff and so forth to evaluating and embracing new technologies. So we really look forward as a team to working closely with Sandip and his entire innovation team, which is pretty substantial. Again, it's several dozens of people. Even I think it's above 100 people, and it's quite unique for a hospital as well as the very professional and advanced-thinking obstetrics team. And we're going to make sure that we're dedicating all the resources and the attention to ensure a successful rollout of the HeraCARE solution and to eventually execute on our strategic partnership. So we are confident that once the strategic partnership is fully executed, this will represent the largest contract for our organization, which is an impressive achievement considering that Anoushka only joined just recently. So again, I'm also happy to share, as Anoushka kind of mentioned, that the pipeline is looking very strong. We have a lot of emerging opportunities. And this specific win with the Gold Coast Hospital and as we move forward in getting more and more results from this optimization and implementation stage and moving to the full adoption, that will create a lot of momentum and help us push these other opportunities even further. So well done once again, Anoushka, and the entire team here in Tel Aviv for the support and the entire process. I think we covered everything that we wanted to mention at this point. So I would be more than happy to take any questions from the participants.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We've got a first question here from [ John ]. Why was the -- maybe one for Anoushka. Why was the focus on high risk as a starting point, Anoushka?

Yes. Look, we have had very good results across other studies that have been done. The high risk comes from the fact that Gold Coast is a pioneer in providing care of high-risk mom at home, and our solution is extremely relevant in terms of what that can do. Currently, a midwife goes out to a mom and travel the distance, and sees maybe 1, 2, maximum 3 moms in a day. So our solution will be able to expand that service to more moms. And we're starting with high risk because if it works there, obviously, the thinking is in lower risk and medium risk, the -- and we also know how it works. As I said, they have done consultation with the Joondalup team with Dr. Neppe, and so we have a good insight on that. But that's the starting point. And for us, it's very, very interesting because that's a new user case. And when we think of the future of the hospital, which is at home, which is patient centric, this becomes extremely relevant and very encouraging for us.

I might even add to that because that was a long discussion that we had with Sandip here in Israel and then the obstetrics team. There's an immediate pain, and when it comes to the actual cost of high-risk pregnancies, even though our solution works for the entire population of expecting moms, low risk and high risk, and that is essentially the goal and the intention with the full adoption at the Gold Coast University Hospital. But when you look at the actual cost and the pain that the hospital and the government is going through when it comes to high-risk pregnancies, that's at least 4 to 5x multiplation of the cost of low-risk pregnancies and to go much higher than that, depends on -- obviously on the factor of the high risk and if it's a pre-term birth or not. So if you look at the immediate opportunity for HeraMED to save a substantial part of these costs, it definitely relates to high-risk pregnancies as well.

Thanks, David, Anoushka. There was a follow-up question there, but I think we may have announced -- answered it with respect to how many high-risk pregnancies does the hospital oversee and what size is that market as a percentage. But I think the important point being is that it's not just a high-risk pregnancy study that you're -- conversation you're having. It's for the whole population.

Right.

Yes.

Maybe just to complete the answer, Tim, basically, it's about 15% to 20% of the pregnancies are considered to be high risk. So overall, there are about 5,000 pregnancies that are managed and taken care of by the Gold Coast. About 15% to 20% are considered high risk.

There's a further question, and I'll leave it to you guys as to how you want to answer it with respect to dollars and commercials. I think maybe a place to start is to confirm or not whether the pilot was paid. And then secondly, is there a way that you can sort of frame some of the commercial discussion and how that might play out over time, I guess, is the other question I'm sure everyone on the call wants to sort of try and claim an understanding of.

Do you...

Yes. So first of all, yes, it's a paid pilot, and -- but we will be more than happy to discuss the specifics of the full adoption in the entire project, including the exact numbers and commitments and financials once we'll get to the point of full execution. I promise you that while we're carefully working on these details with our partners at the Gold Coast, we will share the information in due time.

And it might be worth mentioning what we've said is 5,000 births, but they have thought about the digital transformation very clearly. It's not an ad hoc, let's try this. They're bringing in partners to help that process. So the process through which we went to be at this stage, the due diligence process is extremely thorough. We're very impressed with it. Yes, it was a lot of work for us. And as you could see, the time that it took and the number of people that were engaged, a lot of resources, if we put dollar value on the hours spent in meetings at the highest level and across the organization, it's a big investment for them. So while we need to do the trial, I would say this is a space to absolutely watch, and we will share details as we come across and we are able to do that.

Yes...

Yes. And I'll just make -- Tim, let me just add that I completely support and agree with Anoushka. We went through technical product, medical, software, cyber penetration, regulation, logistics, you name it. It was all very, very thorough and carefully covered by the Gold Coast teams. So it was a really encouraging and good process, and we feel very confident. We know the benefits of the product. We know that we have a very stable product that can give answers. We now have all the answers ready and prepared for the next entity or institution that will come, government or not. We're totally prepared for that.

A lot of assumption is going to be based on how you answer the next one. But it's -- I think everyone on the call would certainly be wanting to get a sense of if we can jump through all the hoops with respect to the initial phase, this evaluation phase or pilot as described in the announcement. Have you got any sense for what deployment may look like with respect to time on a road map? Is this going to be a very measured type approach? Or are we talking 10 years to get to 5,000? I think just trying to give the audience a sense of how they're thinking on both sides as sort of approaching a broader rollout.

I might start, and I'll let you add to that, David. Well, if any -- if the way we have engaged from day 1 to signing is an indication of time line, it's very, very fast. I am talking to other public hospital in other -- New South Wales, Victoria. I can tell you the speed is very different. So -- and I think it sets the standard. And in a way, we've got to be mindful of that. The pilot or this trial is going to be completed in, at most, 9 months. And I'm saying at most because we've discussed in practical terms a bit shorter time lines, but that's the maximum. And things are happening alongside. It's -- the experience hasn't been let's do step one. We've completed that, then we do -- we are engaging across the different stakeholders. So things are moving parallel to each other. So 9 months is the time we have maximum for the trial. And yes, it's not going to be 10 years. And we are looking at the rollout, and there's 5,000 beds at the moment there. David?

Yes, I can only quote again what was said and approved by the Gold Coast and that their plan is for that to become their standard of care across all pregnancies. And as Anoushka mentioned, it's a 6- to 9-month process. And we believe and we're confident that we will meet the KPIs, we will meet the criteria, we will prove our effectiveness and obviously, all the other aspects of the system because we've known that so well and proven that in many additional places already. So fingers crossed, everything works as a plan, we don't have another pandemic or anything like that in the world, and we're moving to full adoption.

I think we have answered all the questions. Maybe one final one for me. Anoushka, you've talked about this moving quite quickly, particularly around this first phase or the evaluation phase. What are the parts to the discussion going on with respect to other -- is it more than just an evaluation of the technology in their workflows and care model as the first step? Trying to get a sense for what the investors might be thinking around news flow, particularly around this agreement over the next 6 months.

Yes. So there's been, I would say, 3 major components letting aside the full rollout. So in terms of the digital component, I might go there because part of what we've done is obviously meet all the requirements. But to meet some of that requirement, it has also meant that we have had to look or change some of the way we have done to meet around talking integration, for example, that's a conversation that is continuing. It is separate to the actual trial, but how we do it in the trial and how do we do it post trial. So there's an element there. With the research team led by the top world-known researcher, obstetric, we've got -- we've engaged with both one who looks at the high risk but also with somebody who's across all the maternal pregnancy and across the antenatal care. So there are potentially 3 research pieces that we will be looking at and how we choose which one at which stage is a learning process, but it's ongoing. It includes productivity gain. It includes, obviously, value to the mom. The components are the same but how deep we go into them and they bringing their university partners, they bringing their in-house physicians. So it is a partnership. This is not just a commercial partner. This is a partnership with multiple layers. And it's very innovative. It's innovative for us as well because we know what we know. And in engaging in a partner, it's also allowing us to innovate and go in different places at different speeds. I hope that answers your question. We will have more details as we progress.

And then maybe one final one. Just given that it is a government hospital, is there hope that this allows further conversations with other government institutions, particularly in Queensland, but I suspect up and down the East Coast in particular?

Yes, this started already last year. But I can tell you this definitely pushes the conversation faster. I know I had a meeting yesterday with the announcement, and the mood has changed. It's really great. It is a -- it does a lot for us because Gold Coast is very well known. They're known for what they do. They are a pioneer in terms of digitalization around -- and transformation in health care. And to be working alongside them and having come to this stage, being able to announce this, we know what work has gone in. So it's a great -- I know when I talk, I talk with a lot of confidence. I know what our product does, but now being able to also say this is how we work with a partner is very encouraging.

And I would only add one additional point, also very, very business and financially focused. So again, I was quite surprised to have a financial background person like Sandip, who comes from the VC world actually and from investments in a very, very executive and influential position within the hospital. So they are thinking about how can potentially we work in the future in order to bring that not just for full adoption within the Gold Coast Hospital but also together with their help and support to additional channels.

Okay. Great. At 10:58, with no more questions, I think half an hour is a good time to complete the call. If there are any further questions, my and David's details, in particular, are on the bottom of the release yesterday. Certainly, happy to continue conversations on a one-on-one basis. I'm sure Anoushka will be more than happy to join those calls as well. Many thanks for everyone's time.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, everyone.