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TWST: We would like to begin with a brief historical sketch of VISICU
and a picture of the things you are doing at the present time.
Mr. Sample: The company was started in 1998 by two Johns Hopkins
intensivists whose tour of duty as professors in intensive care
convinced them that they could cover a lot more patients if they had
technology to help them, so that is where the dream began. A clinical
study was done at Johns Hopkins University with the School of Public
Health calculating the results, and the clinical and financial outcomes
were quite compelling. As a consequence, the two physicians/professors
gathered venture capital money to build the technology that would extend
their reach beyond the 10 to 12 patients they might have been able to
care for as an individual physician at a hospital. VISICU was born. In
2000, the eICU Program went live at its first site, Sentara Healthcare
in Norfolk, Virginia, and it proved to be very successful. A major study
was done where they saw that the technology and the care model
substantially reduced mortality and length of stay. In short, the
clinical outcomes were great and the financial benefit was good as well.
I joined the company at the end of 2001. Up until 2003, we had one
active site, Sentara, where one physician and one nurse supported the
care of some 47 patients. As of December 31, 2005, we have 27 eICU sites
live throughout the country that take care of over 2,200 patients on a
daily basis. So the whole premise is to take a very scarce resource,
intensive care physicians (specially trained doctors to take care of the
sickest patients in the hospital), and leverage them over broad
geographic areas. At this point, one physician and two nurses can help
monitor and support the bedside team in the care of over 100 patients,
which is pretty significant.
Tickers included in this excerpt: EICU
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The
Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does
not make stock recommendations.
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