Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Why Health Systems Should Be Thinking About MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound Right Now

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Why Health Systems Should Be Thinking About MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound Right Now · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - Hello, everyone. This is Erica Spicer Mason with
• 0:02
  - Becker's Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning
• 0:05
  - in to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
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  - Joining me for today's discussion is Jake Ganim,
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  - the executive vice president and chief commercial officer
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  - of Incytech,
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  - who will walk us through why health systems
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  - should be thinking about focused ultrasound right now.
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  - Jake, welcome to the podcast. Thanks again for
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  - making the time for this today. Thank you,
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  - Erica. It's great to be here with you.
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  - Oh, it's great to have you with us.
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  - And I'd love to get kind of just
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  - a quick version from you, you know, who
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  - you are and why you ended up spending
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  - your career kind of at this intersection of
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  - neuroscience and commercial growth.
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  - Absolutely. So I spent my career really on
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  - the commercial and operational side of neuroscience. A
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  - Lot of time at Medtronic, over eight years
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  - there,
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  - three plus years at GE Healthcare, and now
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  - the last two years
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  - at Insightex. So I lead our current global
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  - commercial organization, which includes sales, marketing,
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  - market access, medical affairs, really our full go
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  - to market engine for what we're doing to
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  - drive, focused ultrasound to become the standard of
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  - care. My job is pretty exciting right now.
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  - We get a chance to do a lot
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  - of unique things with the cutting edge technology.
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  - And, really, what motivates me and drives me
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  - and why I came over to Insight Tech
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  - and really am fascinated
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  - with, the neuroscience side of the businesses
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  - that you have this opportunity to take great
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  - technology and bring into the hands of amazing
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  - clinicians. But, really, all that only matters if...
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  - Is if you can provide access to patients
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  - and get it in... Into the right markets.
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  - So well said. And, Jake, appreciate the overview.
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  - And I know neuroscience... I mean, it's a
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  - a space in health care right now that
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  - is getting a lot of attention, and one
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  - of the reasons behind that is that is...
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  - It is a very capacity constrained specialty
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  - in the industry.
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  - I'm curious what you think a hospital or
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  - health system leader should understand about about that
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  - pressure and where MR guided focused ultrasound can
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  - fit in as part of an answer to
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  - the problem.
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  - Yeah. Capacity is a major challenge for for
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  - patients around the world, specifically in neurology as
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  - that's one of the most capacity constraint specialties
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  - in medicine today.
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  - Right now, nearly one in two Americans live
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  - with some type of neurological disorder. And when
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  - we think about the the band and the
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  - burden on that that patient load is there's
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  - really only,
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  - 18,000 neurologists nationwide, and only six hundred of
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  - those neurologists are focused on movement disorders.
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  - So you combine that with what you think
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  - of when essential tremor patients affect seven to
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  - ten million Americans,
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  - and about half of those patients don't get
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  - real relief from first line medication.
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  - And you're seeing an even faster growing neurological
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  - disorder
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  - with Parkinson's, and we see that patient population
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  - doubling by twenty fifty. So there's this really
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  - significant unmet need to help patients where, really,
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  - right now, less than two percent of patients
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  - that are eligible for advanced therapy ever received
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  - it. So what we're doing with focused ultrasound
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  - really lets us treat more patients without needing
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  - to add more specialists into the market, and
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  - it's a really exciting time to to have
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  - focused ultrasound at the forefront.
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  - Yeah. Absolutely. And I'd like to talk a
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  - little bit more about focused ultrasound, kind of
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  - get into the weeds here. For someone who's
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  - never seen this procedure, can you walk us
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  - through what actually happens
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  - in plain terms and also what changes for
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  - the patient and the care team compared to
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  - more traditional treatment pathways?
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  - So a patient would come in. They lay
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  - on an MRI table wearing what we call
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  - our transducer helmet, and that helmet delivers focused
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  - ultrasound waves to a very precise,
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  - target within the brain. There's no incision. There's
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  - no implant for these patients. So we're targeting
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  - a specific region at submillimeter
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  - precision
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  - to,
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  - have some type of effect on the movement
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  - disorder that's happening. So many patients feel some
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  - type of symptom improvement immediately during the treatment,
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  - and almost every one of those cases here
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  - in The US, those patients go home same
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  - day in a couple hour setting. So it's
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  - really a remarkable technology that's able to create
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  - a surgical intervention for a patient that otherwise
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  - would have required a very invasive
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  - procedure.
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  - Yeah. I was just going to say, I'm
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  - sure from the patient's standpoint that minimally invasive
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  - or incisionless
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  - approach is quite appealing.
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  - I'm also curious to know from your standpoint,
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  - when health systems look at this, what's the
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  - financial and strategic case for standing up a
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  - program like this?
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  - Yeah. So this is one of the the
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  - strongest
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  - and and the most important capital decisions happening
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  - right now in neuroscience programs.
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  - The important thing to understand is we've treated
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  - over 30,000
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  - patients around the world, and we're in over
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  - 200 hospitals around the world. So this is
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  - no longer experimental.
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  - We're in 85%
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  - of the top 20 hospitals for neurology and
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  - neurosurgery in The US that have already adopted
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  - this technology
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  - and embraced it. So what it does is
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  - it opens up a new referral pathway for
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  - patients who become medication refractory
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  - who cannot tolerate the side effects of those...
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  - Of that medication that they're on. Folks, ultrasound
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  - really has had some exciting,
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  - progression over the years that we've actually surpassed
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  - deep brain stimulation as the leading first line
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  - intervention for essential tremor back in 2021,
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  - and it's growing at a much faster rate
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  - of adoption.
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  - So what happens is when customers or health
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  - systems bring a focused ultrasound program
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  - to their hospital, it doesn't only offer, faster
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  - treatment growth for their central tremor patients, but
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  - it brings more patients to the health system
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  - that otherwise would go elsewhere or avoid having
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  - an opportunity to be treated. So when we
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  - think about this, like, the real question for
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  - CFOs and executive leadership isn't just whether this
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  - is a good investment. It's what's the cost
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  - to wait. Procedure growth here has really outpaced
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  - virtually every other neuroscience intervention,
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  - And what we do know is referrals will
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  - go to whoever has the capability to treat
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  - these patients. So systems that wait and health
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  - institutions that aren't embracing or adopting this type
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  - of technology are often sending patients to the
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  - hospital down the road that already have it.
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  - In our modeling and when we think about,
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  - the value and and the opportunity for... From
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  - a... From an economics perspective,
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  - somewhere between the range of treating a 165
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  - to a 175
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  - procedures,
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  - we see that that that investment is fully
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  - realized and starts contributing to the bottom line
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  - of a profitable service line for the health
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  - system.
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  - So it's exciting to see that. We we...
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  - We've had opportunities to see health systems achieve
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  - that in a very short window of time,
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  - but, typically,
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  - that's the range we would see, and it's
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  - it's it's quite quite profitable for the health
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  - system as well.
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  - Yeah. Jake, as you were speaking to this,
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  - it reminded me of some of your earlier
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  - remarks about... I think you had mentioned Parkinson's
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  - diagnoses are expected to double within the next
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  - few decades, so I I can see how
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  - this this growth opportunity is certainly there.
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  - And you mentioned that you've seen some of...
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  - Some health systems,
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  - implement this quickly, do this really well. So
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  - I'm curious
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  - if you... If there's a specific example you
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  - could point to, and and what did that
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  - health system do in the initial year of
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  - implementing,
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  - the strategy
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  - that made it work and stick? And is
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  - there anything that systems can tend to get
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  - wrong when they're just introducing
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  - focused ultrasound?
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  - That's a great question. And and the exciting
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  - thing from our side now is we're seeing
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  - this happen pretty routinely, so we have multiple
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  - examples. But really, a really great one to
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  - dig in on would be the community based
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  - health system at Coral Health in Northern Michigan.
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  - And they've really established what a strong program
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  - looks like in year one.
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  - They focused
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  - on their launch,
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  - like a real service line, not just buying
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  - a piece of technology and placing it. So
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  - what they did is they did the right
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  - PR for
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  - education and awareness for patients within their community.
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  - They held physician webinars,
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  - and they went to their full go to
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  - market strategy from day one. They completed over
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  - a 100 cases in less than a year,
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  - and it's volume you would expect from a
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  - larger academic medical center. So it's really exciting
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  - to see that. Other centers have shown similar
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  - patterns, but this program
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  - really embraced it on the front end. So
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  - what we see is programs that struggle once
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  - they adopt our technology and equipment, they're the
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  - ones that are waiting to do the front
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  - end work that needs to be done. So
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  - there's three things that we think CoreWall as
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  - well as other hospitals have done that make
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  - all the difference. So one, they have a
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  - physician champion in charge of the of the
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  - program, and they put these physician champions in
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  - charge of the referral pattern. They make sure
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  - that there's a block,
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  - of dedicated time in the MRI. So it's
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  - not just, trying to squeeze time in. There's
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  - dedicated time for focused ultrasound to treat these
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  - patients in the MRI setting. And they start
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  - marketing for, before they even treat their first
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  - patient and before they even come into the
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  - door. So they have this demand.
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  - They've created a a a referral network, and
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  - they've also,
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  - created
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  - a a a backlog and a wait list
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  - for patients to come in and and have
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  - this therapy, which really,
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  - makes all the difference. And so we have
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  - centers actually now that have purchased the second
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  - system just to keep up with the demand
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  - as they prepare for,
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  - future indication expansion as well as the growth
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  - rates expected with Parkinson's.
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  - Wow.
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  - A really compelling example. Thank you so much,
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  - Jake.
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  - You know, for leaders who are listening in
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  - and they're thinking, this sounds like a fantastic
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  - idea,
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  - If they're ready to move on this, what
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  - does it take operationally
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  - to get focused ultrasound off the ground, whether
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  - we're talking about staffing space, referral workflows, training,
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  - any of it?
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  - Yeah. I I I think operationally,
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  - what's encouraging, it's a little bit lighter than
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  - people would expect, but it still takes a
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  - very focused intention and effort. So it's good
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  - to understand that there's no need for OR
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  - time or space. This runs through an existing
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  - MRI suite. There's a need to have a
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  - coordinated team. So you wanna make sure your
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  - imaging techs that are already there and you're
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  - treating physicians that are handling scheduling.
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  - You really need to understand and appreciate the
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  - referral pathway for patients with movement disorders, and
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  - that should be built with purpose, not just,
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  - hey. We're letting you know we have this
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  - technology. So it really is a comprehensive
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  - approach to how we think about referral pathways.
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  - The physician training and technology training is all
• 9:55
  - done on the front end. Insightec has a
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  - remarkable training process to ensure not only are
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  - we training on the technology, but there's,
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  - able to provide peer to peer training,
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  - before first patients are even, brought to the
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  - health system.
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  - You should plan for roughly six months from
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  - the time you sign your purchase order to
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  - the time we actually install and begin to
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  - treat patients. But that's actually a good scenario
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  - to be in because it gives you time
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  - to get the right marketing
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  - programs put in place, the right patient coordinator,
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  - all the right activities that we know build
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  - a successful program.
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  - It's encouraging to us to really understand and
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  - appreciate reimbursement already exists. It's built under its
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  - own CPT code and covered nationally by Medicare
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  - and most private payers for essential tremor and
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  - with Parkinson's coverage continuing to expand. So it's
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  - really important we do that and that they
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  - track outcomes pretty early. So it's
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  - a simplified
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  - process that when done right is very reproducible.
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  - Yeah. Yeah. And that that comes through and
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  - not just what you laid out, Jake, but
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  - the examples that you gave with Corwell and
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  - others. So
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  - thank you so much for
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  - really some some clear direction there and and
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  - what this looks like.
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  - Is there any single thing that you would
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  - want health system leaders who are listening in
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  - to walk away thinking about when it comes
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  - to focused ultrasound?
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  - Absolutely. So, you know, from my perspective and
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  - our perspective is innovation only matters if patients
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  - can actually have access to that. And that's
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  - a really, really important piece to appreciate and
• 11:23
  - understand from an innovation perspective and bringing a
• 11:26
  - technology like this to patients that would otherwise
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  - go untreated or not have an opportunity to
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  - have quite remarkable outcomes. So the science and
• 11:33
  - the evidence aren't the bottleneck anymore. It's really
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  - the health system around the technology is what
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  - term... Determines the access for patients within their
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  - community.
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  - So we we we see that systems that
• 11:43
  - build the whole service line and not just
• 11:45
  - buy the equipment often see profitability in their
• 11:48
  - first three years much earlier and unable to
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  - capture and treat far more patients in their
• 11:52
  - community that stay within the health system that
• 11:54
  - they've grown to love and appreciate where where
• 11:56
  - where their health care is given. So we
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  - believe that systems that move now will be
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  - the ones that ultimately in the future are
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  - best prepared to treat patients with focused ultrasound
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  - as incisional space surgery becomes the the new
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  - future forward.
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  - Jake, it's been a great conversation with you
• 12:12
  - today. We've covered everything from, you know, this
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  - need that we're seeing in the neuroscience
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  - specialty space and how your organization is directly
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  - addressing it and,
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  - some organizations that are really hitting the ground
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  - running with building these programs. So appreciate everything
• 12:27
  - you've shared with our listeners today, and it's
• 12:29
  - really been great talking to you. Thank you,
• 12:31
  - Erica. It's been a pleasure. Appreciate you having
• 12:33
  - me on.
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  - I would also like to thank our podcast
• 12:36
  - sponsor for today, Insightec.
• 12:38
  - Important safety information can be found at insightec.com
• 12:42
  - backslash safety information.