Ventripoint Diagnostics Ltd. ($VPT)

Okay. Well, it's 11:00. We'll get started on the formal part of the meeting, it will take about 10 minutes or so, and then we can get over to the [indiscernible] part of the business [indiscernible] on the company's activities. The meeting will come to order. Good morning, and welcome to the annual and special meeting of the shareholders of the Ventripoint Diagnostics Ltd. [Technical Difficulty] company's transfer agent and [Technical Difficulty] this meeting and the company management information [Technical Difficulty] the applicable securities regulations to all registered and non-registered shareholders. These provisions allow us [Technical Difficulty]. [Technical Difficulty] Are there any questions from [Technical Difficulty]. The resolution must be approved by a majority of the votes cast at the meeting, and I will now ask someone [Technical Difficulty]. Final resolution as follows. [Technical Difficulty] at the resolution improving the company's stock option plan as set out in the information circular forwarded to shareholders the same is hereby passed in its entirety, [Technical Difficulty] is there any further business? There's no further business and [Technical Difficulty]. [Technical Difficulty] is now terminated. Thank you very much for all that formal [Technical Difficulty]. Now we're going to turn over the meeting to [Technical Difficulty]. Okay. Very good. I hope that the audio quality is better from my end?

So thank you to those who participated in person in the meeting and also to those remaining on the call. And for those who are now joining us, welcome. So I'm Hugh MacNaught, I'm CEO of the company, and I'm very pleased to be able to speak with you today. So over the next half hour, we want to share not only where the company stands today, but more importantly, why believe that Ventripoint is entering a fundamentally different phase of this evolution. During the past growth [indiscernible] this work has gone far beyond developing the VMS technology and product. We've been intentionally building the operational foundation required to support commercialization and expansion in a number of ways by reducing friction in the sales process, strengthening our manufacturing readiness streamlining shipping and deployment, enhancing customer training and installation protocols, improving technical support systems and creating a more structured and scalable distributor model. In other words, we've not simply been preparing to opportunistically sell our product. We've been preparing to scale this business. Joining us on the call today are Dana Frieson, who is joined to lead our business development initiatives and David [indiscernible], who is our new CFO. So together, we'll walk through the opportunity ahead of us, the operational groundwork we've built to support growth and why we believe that Ventripoint is increasingly well positioned for commercial acceleration. Before going too much further, I'd like to remind everyone that certain statements made today may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. We encourage investors to review our public disclosure filings for additional information regarding these risks. So I'd like to start out by discussing the product and the opportunity and why we believe that the timing for growth has never been more compelling. So looking at VMS, it was designed from the ground up to solve some of the most persistent problems or challenges in cardiac imaging, namely the ability to deliver accurate affordable and assessment of cardiac function across a wide range of clinical settings. The VMS platform is adaptable and fluid. It's equally applicable to major academic centers as well as regional hospitals and community clinics. What makes our opportunity so attractive is that there's a growing mismatch between the rising cardiovascular disease burden and the health care system's ability to deliver advanced imaging at scale. MRI is a very important modality but it's expensive. The capacity is constrained and it's difficult to expand quickly enough to meet this increasing demand. So healthcare systems globally are searching for technologies that streamline patient journeys that support earlier diagnosis expanded access to care and reduce operational bottlenecks. We believe that VMS directly applies to all of these priorities. So our clinical validation work is complete, we've achieved regulatory clearance in all of our major markets. So today, our focus is more on execution, converting these years of scientific, technical and regulatory work into commercial momentum and scalable adoption. What excites us most is that we're seeing growing alignment between what health care systems need and what VMSs delivers. Our commercial opportunity begins in high-need areas such as congenital heart disease, pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, cardiotoxicity, surveillance and valve dysfunction, particularly rightsized developed disease. These are areas where clinicians increasingly require reliable, repeatable and scalable cardiac imaging tools. This year, our progress was recognized with the Gold Edison Award for Precision Medicine. So this places a company alongside globally recognized innovators such as Medtronic, Abbott, Boston Scientific and Medical macro instruments. This recognition validates not only the technology itself, but also the clinical importance of what we are building. As new therapies and valve procedures emerge of clinicians need tools capable of constantly and consistently measuring cardiac remodeling and functional change over time. So VMS was purpose built for precisely this type of longitudinal assessment. At the same time, health care systems continue to face staffing shortages and workforce turnover. Solutions that reduce variability between operators and simplify complex imaging workflows are becoming increasingly valuable. This trend strongly supports our positioning because VMS is designed to help institutions maintain consistency and reliability even in very challenging operating environments. I'll now turn this over to Dana to discuss our commercial strategy and pipeline. So Dana, over to you.

Thanks, Hugh. Good to be here, get a chance to meet everybody virtually. I wanted to spend a few minutes to look over our commercial strategy and give you a little bit of a clearer idea on what we're doing I think you'll find that what we're doing is grounded in disciplined execution. We're building a strong foundation and it's not just on ambition and hopes and dreams. As many of you know, we've really [indiscernible] with the beachhead strategy where we're starting with some very specific clinical uses rather than trying to go across the entire spectrum of medicine. We started by focusing in congenital heart disease. This was -- this was intentional because it's an area where the patients need regular scans throughout the course of their life, and it's one where the scans need to be exceptionally accurate, where VMS+ provides a real advantage to the clinician and to the patient, often to the congenital heart disease, exists outside of the normal stream of the hospital, which means that there is a little more time for people to do higher-level scans, bridge the gap between echo and cardiac MRI. And so by figuring out how to access the CHD groups, we're able to really maximize the value that VMS provides. The other thing that the congenital heart programs have that is really exceptional is specialized philanthropic funds. So normally if you're into a major hospital system, the purchasing cycle is 18 to 24 months. If we're working in cardiac heart disease or congenital heart disease, there's philanthropic money that we can get. And not to kind of announce too soon, but we're very excited that we've got permission from the [ Ali Hinkel Foundation ] to announce that they've confirmed purchasing 2 units to be deployed in the [ Louis ] area. And what makes us exciting is not just that they're funding 2 units as part of their giving, but they're going to work hand-in-hand with us to develop the clinical pathways, the implementation and make sure that the whole process leads to a higher value for both the hospital and the patients. So really proving out the reason why the CHD or the congenital heart disease was such a good place to focus initially is that partnership with the philanthropic and having them fund us. Now that we've got that basic foundation in the congenital world. We're looking at other indications that we can go after like pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, these are all situations where ventricle measurement need to be highly accurate, and we have a really strong advantage on. We also see advantages in cardiotoxicity. If anybody is going through cancer treatment, it actually fundamentally does a lot of damage to the heart, and there's a real shortage in how this is being measured to be in medicine, and we're positioned well to give the high-quality imaging to fill that gap. On the structural side, there's also tricuspid dysfunction. So people have like a leaky valve. This is something that we're able to really go after. Beyond individual indications, we're doing some bigger system-wide projects. I'm sure all of you are familiar with the partnership we have with Providence Innovation being able to expand the networks that we work with through a hub-and-spoke model, allowing small regional centers to have high-quality imaging that's then analyzed and working with cardiac specialty centers like Providence Healthcare. This helps us extend access, standardized workflows and reduce a lot of the bottlenecks that are found in medical deserts across North America. Getting that project together with a lot of work specifically for Hugh. [indiscernible] a lot of this together. It's not like you can just say, hey, we want to partner with a whole bunch of regions and it works. First of all, they had to chase down agreement between all the parties, including the indigenous groups, make a formal expression of interest, which has now been accepted and now they're moving on to putting the program in front of in BC and it's there and should be reviewed by the end of June. Why this is important is it's not just one collaboration between Providence and a couple of nations. This is something that is a new structure that worldwide could use our product. This hub-and-spoke model. Since the agreement with Providence, we've also been speaking with Salary, which is a heart center in Edmonton that's connected to the University of Alberta. And with them, we've put together a formal business proposal to go out to the governments of [ Yukon and Nunavut ] to expand this hub-and-spoke model that we're doing with Providence into all areas of the north and also down through Costa Rica. As some of you may remember, we had a press release about our relationship with First Light Health a couple of months ago. Since that launch, First Light and the representatives have introduced us to the Ministers of Health for Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, they've met twice with the [indiscernible] of the treaty 6 First Nations that control a lot of the northern regions of Alberta and into the Yukon. Those nations have introduced us into the philanthropic divisions of ATCO [indiscernible], most of us just [indiscernible] camps or mining camps. They actually represent a lot of the housing and innovation that's happening through the north and they're funding a lot of the new clinical operations through the Arctic. So it's been very nice to be introduced to them in addition to other development corps. So through [ first light ], we've been introduced to and are in discussions at various stages with those 30 indigenous communities in British Columbia, Alberta, New Brunswick and then through the [ YUKON ] and Northwest territories. To support all these different things that we've been doing, we've implemented a CRM system, so we actually have proper tracking of our leads, our follow-up management, better visibility into the pipeline and in times where we're not getting a bid or things are not moving forward, we have a structured process for reviewing why and adapting our pension or proposals, which is leading us to making it further down the sales cycle. We've launched a monthly newsletter that keeps everybody up to date from yourselves as stakeholders, prospects, clinical network everybody so that we know all -- everybody that we're working with can see the major developments in the company. And [ Matt and Malcolm ] have been doing an excellent job. For those of you who follow that, every one of them has been highly professional and well received. Probably one of the biggest things that we've done in the last few months is start a more structured reach out between our marketing department and our clinical advisory, we put together a list of 1,400 echocardiologist, cardiologists and administrators across 5 major regions of the world. that are the prime users of VMS+, and we started a structured reshot of phone calls and e-mails to be able to reach all of the in the last 4 months out of 1,400 contacts, we have reached a little over, I think, 1,080 was the last I checked this morning. So we've done right around 1,100 of these have been contacted. We should have the rest done by the end of June. And then it's our goal as a commercialization team to reach every contact who's a fit for VMS every 6 months in perpetuity, so that everybody will know who we are and be regularly speaking with us. This reach out started with booking appointments in the first week, and now we're at the point where we're finding a new lead, a new hospital, somebody who's ready for an online demo at a cadence of about the new contact a week. And for now, we're just doing these online, we're grouping them. So like in California, we have 3 major centers that are interested. And so we're -- we instead of supplying somebody out for every person that wants a demo. We're doing them online, virtual until we get 2 or 3 in a geographic region. And then we can be more capital efficient with our travel to make sure that we're using things the best. Commercially, we're now evolving our focus toward not just research, but centers that are able to really integrate VMS+ in their workflow. So like the ones that are being funded by the [ AliHinko ] Foundation, really working with them to put this into routine clinical use. Together with the clinical team, we've put together a list of real high influence cardiac centers that are going to be our priority targets moving forward. These are places where they have clinical champions. They're published regularly. There are no one in the world as being cardiologic leaders. These are the ones we're going to be focusing on higher-quality relationships with. As many of you know, we've had unit placed in research at the Mayo Clinic. When Hugh and I were at the Edison Awards, we had the privilege of meeting fairly extensively with one of the leading influencers in the Mayo Clinic organization. And since coming back, he's introduced us into 5 different divisions of the Mayo Clinic, that are a possible use for VMS+, and we're tracking those down and building out the workflow and how we can best do it. So that's really what we're trying to do is get into these leading centers prove out several different use cases and then take those into other smaller areas. We have active conversations right across Canada right across the United States, the U.K. and Europe. And currently, we should be ranging for installations in 3 of these sites before the new -- the end of the quarter. And again, while we've had implementations before, they haven't been at this level of collaboration that we have now where we're really working as a true partner to get these into the clinical workflow of the organization. We're expecting to announce a couple of commercial deployments related to these in the coming weeks. So we were kind of hoping to have them for today, but paperwork as it is, we weren't able to get some right signed up to be able to announce them today. From a channel perspective, we're really working to combine direct sales for our flagship accounts. So somebody like the Mayo Clinic, we're working very directly with, but in areas across Europe, Germany, we're not physically there, and we don't have a tight relationship. We're working closely with distributors who have been trained now to really take the lead and flesh out those markets for us. One of the last things we want to discuss is something that we hear a lot about, and that's reimbursement. VMS+ aligns with the existing reimbursement codes that hospitals already used, so they're not needing to get a new code. We don't need to ask for permission to build for it. And this is something that almost everybody understands in the market. So when we're selling it, we're able to show how they can invoice or bill for it very directly. One thing, though, that should mention is we're not stopping there. There are standard [indiscernible] codes for the type of work that we do with Ventripoint. But we are working with a national coalition and this National Coalition met with Congress last week, and they're looking for additional CPT and reimbursement codes for products like VMS. And this group is the group that got conditional heart screening to be mandatory across the United States, Canada and Europe. So they do have a fair bit of political clout and they're working to get products like ours that have a specific benefit to congenital heart disease reimbursed at a higher level. So while that's a little bit of a longer-term strategy, it's something we're working with the congenital heart alliance with very directly. Been doing a lot of talking. So I'll close with this. We've worked really hard to make sure the pipeline is real. We've slashed anything out of there that wasn't the conversations we're having are serious. They're with leaders, administrative level, C-suite levels, and the feedback that we're getting from clinicians that have used the product or seen it demonstrated is continues to be exceptional. People are blown away at the quality of the data that we're able to give and excited to get involved in its usage.

Great. Well, thank you very much, Dana. You've certainly been able to accomplish quite a bit in a relatively short period of time. So now I'll turn it over to David [indiscernible], who can describe or provide some commentary on our financial position and path to revenue. So over to you, David.

Thanks, Hugh. And great to have the first opportunity to say a few words to Ventripoint shareholders. I guess, I should say, fellow investors as I'm an Ventripoint investor also. As you're all very aware of the last number of years, Ventripoint has operated pretty lean and mean and that's been intentional. A lot of investments happen and you've heard in terms of the clinical foundation and regulatory development while maintaining a focus on capital efficiency, being very sensitive to dilution. And at this point in time, though now we're really ready to take the next step and really evolve a number of the initiatives that Dan had mentioned as well as other corporate objectives. So really deploying capital into the commercial execution, the scalable infrastructure and really customer integration capabilities that will support longer-term growth there was the mention that we got a couple of sales that are going to come together for this quarter. We've also been able to get 1 system for -- so there is a little bit of a revenue build happening. And certainly, we foresee with the quality pipeline that there will be a lot more momentum that's going to pick up. And not only the single units, hopefully, the the sales that are generated hereafter will be of a multiunit quantity. So therefore, some momentum could pick up very nicely before the end of the year and in the second half. We also, aside from kind of the sales and revenue side, looking to really clean up our balance sheet as well. As a lot of you are aware, we have convertible debentures that were helping with funding the company for a few years. And what we're seeing now is that of those are converting and we're trying to encourage those to be converted to just help manage our balance sheet to look a little better. Also at the end of the year, we're able to successfully write it off a whole bunch of old commitments that we had. So that really made a marked improvement in terms of working capital ratios and so forth, which when we look ahead and try to broaden the the horizon for the different levels of investors that we would like to bring into the supporters and bring in their capital to the company. Those are things that they pay a lot more attention to. In terms of financing, yes, you can raise capital through equity issuance, but we certainly have our eye focused on non-dilutive funding opportunities as well, which include government innovation programs and even potentially strategic partnerships, both those would be a very good additional validation for the company. So we're hoping to evolve that very quickly. And of course, that would enhance our capital position as we scale up. So just kind of keep it short and brief. But as had been mentioned already, we're really trying to focus on building a foundation to be more at the ready, whether that's operationally be support or in the capital markets kind of way. So we have a number of initiatives ahead that we think will really provide a bit of power to moving all the initiatives forward. And I'd just like to thank you all for your support. I'll turn it back to you, Hugh.

Great. Thanks, David. So looking ahead now over the next 12 months. There's a number of important milestones we believe will demonstrate the progress of our next phase, which is growth in commercialization. So the first thing is commercial deployments. So each new site represents far more than revenue. To us, it represents validation, referenceability and expands our credibility in the market. And wherever possible, we'll share these stories, some of these institutions are a little skittish about news releases and use of their names. So within those constraints, definitely, we will be sharing more information and more stories. The second thing is the generation of clinical evidence. So real-world data remains one of the strongest accelerators in health care technology. And we're very focused on continuing to build that evidence base both strategically and aggressively. The third thing is indication and expansion. So we view VMS as a platform technology. We began, of course, with congenital heart defects, but we see significant opportunity to deepen adoption across these other indications, which we mentioned earlier [indiscernible] included pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, surveillance of oncology patients, valve disease and just broader [indiscernible] heart assessment. The fourth thing is the hub-and-spoke model. We brought this up in the context of Providence Innovation. So Providence is completing construction of their flagship hospital in Vancouver, name St. Pauls. They're describing this as Mayo North. It's a $2.5 billion project, and we are one of the inaugural technology partners in that. The hospital is associated with the UBC Medical School. It's a tertiary care center, and we'll be actively working to support the smaller remote and indigenous communities in the province. So between Providence and First Nations such as Nisco, we believe there's a great opportunity to really validate this hub-and-spoke model. As we get deeper into it, we're seeing that this has very broad implications. It's quite intuitive to visualize small First Nations village near the Alaska border is benefiting from an advanced technology such as VMS+, this removes the need for those people to trouble great inconvenience and expense. What's less intuitive is that there are health care deserts and underserved communities even proximal to urban centers. So as we get further into this, I think there'll be very broad applicability both regionally and nationally and internationally. So a final area of milestones that we're pursuing are strategic partnerships. We're actively engaged in discussions with potential distribution and strategic partners with an eye to accelerating our commercial reach and operational scale. And in fact, during the recent AAPC meeting in Italy, I took a break 1 day to travel to a neighboring town to visit with a potential commercial partner. We're now moving on to the next stage of that discussion. So all of this, in terms of key messages, we've been moving from preparation into execution, and we'll be moving from execution into scalable growth. So before opening the floor for questions, I'd like to just speak briefly to our shareholders and prospective investors. The company certainly has come a long way since I moved into this role in early 2024. Together with our team, we have advanced Ventripoint's to concepts for validation through regulatory clearance for version 4, and we're now very directly focused on commercialization. This has been a challenging journey. It's really required persistence, discipline and an incredible amount of focus work from a very lean and dedicated team. So what gives me confidence as we speak today, is not simply our technology and product. It's what we're building around it. We spent the last 2 years preparing this company for growth. We've strengthened our operational processes, we've really improved our commercial systems. We've taken a close look at customer support and how to improve our capabilities. We're taking a fresh new approach with our distributors, and we're building the infrastructure that will be necessary really to scale this responsibly and efficiently. And we believe that all the operation really is essential. Really looking at meaningful commercial momentum, companies either scale successfully or they'll struggle under the operational pressure. So the focus really over the last 2 years has been to ensure that the company is ready for success. And that, I think, positions us to enter the next chapter. So the market opportunity is significant. The clinical need is growing. The tenor of the conversations we're having with prospective users is improving, and we're increasingly prepared to capitalize on the opportunities at the desired scale. So really to move this forward, additional capital will help us accelerate the expansion. It will expand our commercial reach. We'll be able to grow our reference site network and execute more aggressively. So the message really is straightforward. For those of you who are close to us, please stay engaged, follow our progress, whether it's through news releases, LinkedIn, our newsletters or even calling us directly. We certainly appreciate you telling the story to others. We believe awareness of what Ventripoint is building. We're still very much in the early stages. And would really welcome a broader audience. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us directly. My phone number and e-mail are at the bottom of every news release. We certainly welcome conversations, introductions and engagement with people who really understand and see the scale of the opportunity. And then finally, please just watch us as we move forward. We believe the foundation has been built. We've got the systems in place. We see that the market now is evolving to one of greater recognition of the promise of VMS, and we're positioned for pursuable and hopefully exponential growth. So thank you all. We'll now open the floor for questions.

Okay. So for Matt, can you give us a current status update on Provident St. Paul's hub collaboration, has a budget for [indiscernible] formally submitted and approved. This is a long question. So basically, with Providence, we're in the innovation program. We're probably the most advanced company in terms of technology and capabilities within that program. The nice thing with the Providence [indiscernible] program is that they do recognize at early-stage companies require revenue. So they're working with us to secure that revenue. So the idea is that this would be paid deployment. We have approached an organization called Innovate BC. With Innovate BC, the first step was to jointly submit an expression of interest, this has been formally reviewed and approved. So we're now moving on to the next stage. The next stage is the submission of a full application, a fully costed application, we're working towards getting this in place mid-June and hopefully reviewed by the end of June. So the plan right now is deployment of 2 to 3 systems in the new St. Pauls, and that will be followed by additional installations at the spokes of the remote sites. From Frank, any update on the [ Ascent ] partnership when will revenue start. Actually, for this question, I will turn it over to Dana, who has been a more regular contact with Ascend.

Yes. So we've been working with Ascend. One of the things that's held that up just a little bit. They had a new release of their software that was supposed to be ready last fall and the launch has been delayed a few months. It's now supposed to be launched at the end of June. And we're working with them to co-launch together into the congenital market with their new product offering starting in mid-June, middle of July. So we had a little bit of a fall start because they weren't quite ready for market, but now they are -- it looks like the debt team met with their head of strategy last week, and it looks like they're on track to be ready to go for the middle of June. So we'll be launching with them again.

From John [indiscernible], what is the status of the China group and their payment? So we, I believe, issued a news release maybe a month ago disclosing that they have now submitted to Chinese FDA, so that has been accepted by the Chinese FDA, and the feedback has been that they've been approved for the so-called green pathway, which is an expedited pathway. The process, as far as I understand it, with Chinese FDA is at the expedited pathway able to take 4 to 8 months. The submission was made in March. So we're anticipating approval in China prior to the end of the calendar year. Simultaneously, [indiscernible] has been reaching out to various prospective customers, they're now in the process of responding to an RFP for 60 systems. This is an RFP for multiple vendors. So we'll see what comes of that. But we're very excited. I think just looking at that as one example. The scale of opportunity in China as amount. [indiscernible] is an earlier stage company. They have committed to investing in us. However, that is contingent on them raising additional capital. So I can't really comment on the timing of that. But [indiscernible] obviously better than later. A question from Howard [indiscernible]. Why are you not dealing with major Canadian hospitals? I think as Dana earlier mentioned, he's been in touch with the [ Stollery ] in Edmonton, which is part of the UA system. So that certainly would constitute a major Canadian hospital. Providence in St. Pauls in Vancouver is a major hospital. And as I mentioned, their current build-out is $2.5 billion. We've had meetings with other sites in Toronto, as well as Ottawa and Atlantic Canada. So this is very much in play.

If you don't want me and I'm adding in there, Hugh. We have reached out to and spoke with every major hospital that does anything related to advanced cardiology in Canada. Some of them weren't at a spot where they were able to do things right away. Others have all of their plate filled with current projects, and we're going to be speaking to them again in a couple of months. So it's not that we haven't reached out to them. It's just that at this time, they don't have space for us in their dev cycle.

From Drew Botner, are the current sales and processes and sales and pipeline going to be under the Device as a Service model? Yes. So this is very much an evolution where we're trying to move towards. So traditionally, VMS has been sold as a capital equipment purchase. The next step in this progression, I believe, is to move to a subscription model, what we're calling Device as a Service. We're not rigid on this. I think that there's recognition that some sites would still prefer to acquire BMS through capital equipment purchases. So the current plan really is to bias is strongly towards subscription, which obviously has a benefit of recurring revenue. So we're pushing towards an 80-20 model between capital equipment and capital equipment purchase and subscription. So we'll see how this evolves, but that is the objective. Eventually, when procedure volumes get high enough, we can then move to a cost per use model. So we're on a continuum here. We're just getting sort of past the first step of capital equipment purchase. The next is to actively engage customers with subscription models, and we'll be able to report back more definitively in 6 to 9 months on that. From that, for the first light Health [indiscernible] Valley Health Authority, how many months of real-world data do you think you'll need to make a compelling ROI case? Maybe, Dana, you could address this question.

Yes. So one of the things that we're starting this spring is we've developed a relationship with the Health Economics department of UBC, and starting next month, we're going to have access to retroactive outcome data from hospitals in Canada. And this is going to allow us to look at building out the ROI prior to even the implementation because we'll know the exact number of cases where VMS would have saved travel and we'll be able to go back from there. And UBC is actually looking at helping us build out the modeling on this so that prior to even the implementation, we can bring a solid ROI case to the nation. And preliminarily, it's looking really good A lot of the nations are looking at 25,000 to 30,000 per flight and then another 5,000 to 10,000 to have the person repatriated back to their village. So it -- yes, we're expecting to have that data by mid-July. And the nice thing is it should be collated in partnership with UBC meaning that it will have a lot of credibility when we take it to market.

And Dana, are you able to put a little more flesh on the bones with regards to the UBC ROI model?

So they reached out to us about maybe about 4 months ago because a med tech across Canada as a whole, there's a real gap in the commercialization data. And just it's not something that, that transparent in Canada, and they wanted to build a new model for using retroactive data to provide clear ROIs for system purchases, and they picked us as the first group to work with that one. So this involved a few stages to get into formality. We had to get effectively introduced into the program through a couple of government channels. we did those. We've filled out the applications got things in. And yes, so we're approved for starting a more detailed collaboration with them in getting the commercial both the clinical and the financial ROI very clear in hand for those nations in the next couple of months. So the money has been approved. It's just sitting in a budget waiting to get moved over to somewhere else that we can go into the next stage with UBC.

From Karen, do you have any buyers in China lined up? So again, Karen, we're working through a partner in China, as I mentioned, while they're in the process of securing regulatory approval, they're responding to an RFP. They're looking at additional buyers. There's also a midterm opportunity here apparently in advance of regulatory approval. There are a limited number of sites that potentially could acquire VMS. This would be most likely for research use only, but that is in play. Another question from Howard, refer to Mayo Clinic and dealings in California. Why not cardiology departments of Canadian hospitals? I think as we mentioned, we're actively engaged with with a number of Canadian centers. So I believe that question has been answered. Are any analysts following the company or is it too early? We don't really have the analyst coverage that we desire. This is -- this is very important to us, and we're working towards securing that. It may be a little too early, but I don't think we're necessarily that far off. Deborah, already sufficiently funded for the next 12 to 18 months without dilution? The short answer is no. Under the business plan, we're striving to hit positive cash flow within 2 years. We'll have to raise capital or secure capital to enable the execution of that plan. if we're doing equity offerings, by definition, that is dilutive. Howard, when do you expect a breakeven? I think I just addressed that in the last comment. Karen, you mentioned having an average one meeting a week with a qualified customer, which markets are showing a stronger traction? Again, Dana, maybe you can address this question.

Right now, we're finding children's hospitals, particularly those in the congenital fields are our strongest traction, although it has been pretty much across spectra mainly with cost and heads of their divisions. Generally, the sonographers are reaching back to us. So it's just about all cardiologists. And I would say maybe 70% in the children's pediatric world and 3% in the adult world.

Okay. For Howard, have you considered getting 1 or 2 leading cardiologists on board as advisers to the company? Absolutely. We do have an advisory board. This includes people like [ Dr. Luke Mertens ] formerly a [indiscernible] hospital is now at Chile. In his field, Luke is probably 1 of the top 2 or 3 globally. So very supportive of Ventripoint and a great advocate for VMS technology. Dr. Greg Skinner and Lester, he's been a very active proponent for the system and has been supportive in so many ways to us. As well, there's a couple of others, and we hope to be making a couple of announcements in June regarding additional advisers joining the team. Paula [indiscernible], any thought of selling the business at all? Yes. I think the long-term objective for Ventripoint, there's 1 or 2 ways this can go. We could be at the point of such strong revenue growth that -- we continue to build the business and look for additional technologies to fold in. The other avenue would be to have it acquired most likely by an industry incumbents such as GE, Philips and Siemens. For that to happen, I think we need to get to a certain user base that would probably be in the neighborhood of 100 systems. From Karen, what specific milestones over the next 12 to 18 months, would management expect to materially re-rate shareholder value? I think at a high level, Karen, what will fundamentally change the appearance of this company is the transition into growth, the transition from a user base that is primarily early adopters and thought leaders to routine clinical use. I think we have disclosed the fact that we've acquired components for 25 systems, and it's my ambition to get these out the door as quickly as possible, ideally within the calendar year. Certainly, at the point we doubled our user base, I think that would warrant a sort of reassessment of shareholder value. From John Rising, is there any special value from the use of VMS+ and neonatal intensive care units? Certainly, John, with VMS that it's been used on a wide range of ages of patients. The earliest that I'm aware of as a child in the Czech Republic, who was 30 minutes old, where VMS was used to identify a septal wall defect. So certainly -- certainly in the use of neonatal intesive care units and with patients with congenital heart defects. This would be very important. And I'd remind everyone that in terms of CHD, the incidence of this is 1 in 100 births. So it's actually a fairly common defect, and I think there would be a strong argument to have VMS present in all of these units. Nigel, Speaking of England, NHS adoption, how is it going from Dariofritus, buying in or 2? So for those who don't know [indiscernible] VMS for several years. He recently completed his PhD based on the research program using VMS. He's a very active and enthusiastic proponent of VMS. He's part of the [indiscernible] Thomas Trust, which has not so long ago have been merged with the Royal Bronton Trust. So this is going to become, I believe, the largest trust in the U.K. So we're just going through all of the administration and bureaucratic wrangling over this. The good news is that upon full amalgamation they'll expand to 4 departments -- 4 cardiology departments. So we're working very, very hard to keep VMS top of mind. And I think as the organization sorts itself out, hopefully, we're well positioned to take advantage of that. And then, Frank, when do you reasonably expect to reach an installed base of 100 users? So Frank, I'm pushing to get that done within 2 years. So the first order of business is to double the user the base to approximately 50 and then to double it again. Good. So any further questions. Thank you very much for joining us. We'll conclude this part of the meeting, and I will turn it back over to George Adams.

Looks like Karen had another [indiscernible] there, you say wait.

Wait. Okay. Seeing nothing more over to you, George. Here is a question sorry. One final question. Do you foresee any major increases in costs whether you try to grow your customer base? What are the major threats? Actually, we have a good margin on the cost of goods for VMS, so that I'm reasonably confident of the current uncertainty around tariffs, et cetera. We'll have to see how that plays out. I don't see any material issues with that. In terms of major costs, I don't foresee any -- obviously, if we can bring on more sales and commercial people that will get this moving faster. But that's a cost we can control. So in other words, no, I don't foresee any major unexpected increases in costs. And Paul, with reducing the cost of the VMS make any difference? I don't believe so. Part of what we brought Dana on to do with the ROI modeling is really to demonstrate value. So price and value, obviously, being very different things. Dana, I don't know if you have comments on that.

A big part of what we're doing is working with the philanthropic groups to get the money because one of the things we're finding is almost nobody is getting purchase orders, the Philips, GE, all of the big guys are having almost no success getting anything through the [indiscernible] right now. So the actual amount doesn't seem to be an issue. We haven't had anybody push back on pricing the times where it might make a little bit of a difference is if it's being -- if there's fundraisers or individual family groups that are funding it. Then in those situations, it might make a little bit of a difference. But for the standard hospital purchase, it hasn't -- there hasn't been any pushback on pricing. We're actually very reasonable compared to every other device in the market.

And another question for Karen, maybe your position to answer, Dana. What's the major hurdle to orders going through?

A lot of it is just the current system. In med tech has went through 3 major changes. 2015, the direct approval of service lines being able to buy things went away. 2019, it changed to a new capital purchase model, where the ROI had to be demonstrated not just to each individual hospital, but to the mothership and that added an extra layer of scrutiny on all purchases. And then in 2023, it got to the point where each individual affiliate or hospital we might be working with doesn't get to approve their own purchases. They have to make a pitch that goes to a capital purchasing budget and then that's approved. And the difficulty there is that we're asking our directors that are working with us to make the pitch to the capital purchase committee. So on our side right now, a big part of our bottleneck is training our directors and our champions, how to pitch better and win those pitches because functionally, only about 80% of what is being asked for in the capital budget in the hospitals is being denied. And so we are training the directors and champions, we have to be able to get through that process better. But the first part of our thing over the last 6 months was learning what the pitch process was like, what materials they needed to present, what the format it had to be in so that we could train them to pitch better. We've actually been really successful in convincing clinicians they love the product. It's just showing them how to translate that to the CFO level.

Okay. And a question from Nigel regarding the SaaS model? So as I mentioned earlier, we're calling a Device as a Service. So VMS is a hardware software solution. We're just in the early stages of proving this model out. So the aspiration is to drive this to at least an 80% weighting towards the [indiscernible] subscription model. And as we get further into engagements with prospective customers, we'll be able to report more definitively on that. Okay. I'll turn it back to you, George.

Yes. So we're always open to questions just being [indiscernible].

Thank you all. And one more thing. We had a very good engagement with the clinical thought leader and administrator in France. So this will lead to a product demo and we believe, an enormous opportunity in France, where they actually understand the opportunity in improving patient care pathways and patient journeys. We'll be able to report back on that at the next update, but we're seeing things up for an on-site demo in June and hopefully, multiple placements to follow. So thank you very much, and back to you again, George.

[indiscernible]. Thank you. Bye,bye.