In this report, JOMDD, a medical device incubation company and Japanese startup, will introduce business activities that consider COVID-19 coronaviruses.
In January 2020, the world changed, probably forever.
The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has given each of us time to reflect and think about how to conduct business in the future. The JOMDD AVNeo™ Sizer Team (Launched medical devices in over 40 countries: https://avneo.net/en/top/ ) started planning immediately, “how will we connect, motivate and educate our customers, while working remotely?” This can be a challenge. In medical device marketing, I am strong believer that face to face meetings and communication are the best way to develop relationships and grow the business. But, COVID-19 prevented this from occurring. So we had to get creative.
The AVNeo™ Sizer Team took to LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/jomdd/), WhatsApp, SurveyMonkey and email to establish seamless communication channels with our Key Opinion Leaders and key customers globally. Even though the number of procedures has slowed, due to reductions in elective surgical procedures, the global interest is at an all-time high. The use of live webinars and the creation of a new virtual Dry Lab procedure will help continue the education for our new AVNeo™ Users.
On April 25 & 26th, JOMDD held two (2) Live Webinars that were attended by over 200 attendees from over 30 countries (check the information for Webinars here: https://avneo.net/en/publication/ ) The response was tremendous and has resulted in increased communication with other KOLs around the world. The webinars have now become a standard part of our education process and we will use the webinars to highlight specific case studies and will post on LinkedIn to draw more attention. We are planning to hold quarterly webinars to continue the momentum.
Soon our JOMDD LinkedIn Page will surpass 1,000 Followers. This audience will be extremely important for the continued growth and Cardiac Surgeons now look to our page for updates on the AVNeo™ procedure.
While I hope we can get back to some level of normal soon, the use of technology has helped lower the impact of COVID-19 than first projected. The AVNeo™ Sizer Team was proactive and our customers have appreciated our efforts to support them on their continued journey toward becoming AVNeo Experts.
*JOMDD is supporting overseas development of medical equipment and medical services of other companies. Please feel free to ask me about that. https://jomdd.com/inquiry/english.html
[responsive]
[/responsive]
Introduction
AVNeo seeks to provide a biocompatible treatment for aortic valve disease. Aortic valve disease is conventionally treated surgically with a prosthetic valve. Prosthetic valves are costly, leading to a worldwide economic burden on healthcare. The durability of biological valves are also still under question. The largest effect to patients following mechanical valve operations is the need to take anticoagulant drugs for the rest of their lives, causing great strain on quality of life. The popularity of TAVR is also on the rise, but facility startup costs, post procedural complication management issues, continue to present resistance to its position as a “go to”treatment for aortic valve disease.
History
AVNeo (Aortic Valve Neo-Cuspidization) started in Japan from 2007. The treatment has been carried out worldwide with 4,300+ cases. Favorable outcomes have been reported in conference presentations and articles (Ref. 1 and 2).
The initial cases are nearing 12 years (Ref. 1). Currently, more than 100 facilities globally have started AVNeo and the growth is accelerating.
References:
1) Ozaki Procedure: 1,100 patients with up to 12 years of follow-up. Shigeyuki Ozaki, MD; Editorial Comment. Turkish Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2019;27(4):454
2) Excellent Hemodynamic performance after aortic valve neocuspidization (AVNeo) using autologous pericardium. Krane, M, Boehm, J, et al. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery 2020 (in press).
