IMD Companies Inc (ICBU)

[roelien]

A PR from june 30,2006 on iMD HeartScan where Julian Risler is interviewed and based on the PR I can now say that iMD and AMMA is definitely susidiaries. Also note the revenue model for iHeartsCAN:


Heart smart
Company wants patients to understand scan results
South Florida Business Journal - by Brian Bandell

Using his portable ultrasound machine, Integrated Medical Diagnostics President Julian Rinsler scans Amie Lawson for heart trouble.
Medical patients who want a record of their last heart scan usually get a picture of their insides and maybe some handwritten notes. But Julian Rinsler would rather they receive something more easily understood.

His company, Integrated Medical Diagnostics, has developed a software program designed to make the results of ultrasounds of the carotid artery in the neck more useful for doctors and patients. The images are interpreted into a report card that grades the patient on several health factors by taking into account a database of people with similar characteristics. The report then makes recommendations ranging from medications to dieting.

In June, Rinsler moved his company into the Enterprise Development Corporation incubator at Florida Atlantic University, from which he recently graduated.

Rinsler has just rolled out the latest version of his product, which he sells to doctors for $25,000 with a portable ultrasound machine and $8,000 for just the laptop computer with the program. A doctor can whip out the machine to scan the patient, record the patient's biographical information into the laptop and send it to a company in Utah Rinsler has contracted to do the readings.

Integrated Medical Diagnostics charges doctors $85 per scan and doctors are usually reimbursed between $208 and $275 per scan, depending on location and patient coverage. Since scan interpretation is outsourced, the doctor doesn't need a staff radiologist.

The test result is supposed to be ready the next day, but Rinsler still has some kinks to work out. A scan done in his office recently took four days to read as he puts the finishing touches on his software program and integrates it with the scanners.

"Once we figure this out will take 10 or 30 minutes to read," said Bruce Collett, CEO of IMT Healthscan, which is reading the images out of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Collett's company reads ultrasound scans at doctors offices through its own contract and through referring companies like Integrated Medical Diagnostics. Where Rinsler's company differentiates itself is in its software, Collett said.

The program measures intima-media thickness, which is one of the leading indicators of heart trouble when the walls of the artery are too thick. It also measures the narrowing of the arteries and assesses the amount of plaque built up in the arteries.

These results are compared to patients of similar age, gender and race in IMT Healthscan's database of 9,500 scans.

The report gives the patients letter grades in these areas, tells them their risk level and gives them their "vascular age." The program accesses the database to make treatment recommendations for the patient and doctors based on medical guidelines.

"This is an excellent technology that we find extremely useful," said Dr. Dennis Peterson, of Bountiful, Utah, who uses Integrated Medical Diagnostics' program with his ultrasound. "We use the thickness readings to identify people who can be left off medication and people who need it."

Rinsler hopes to do the readings in house once he grows his company. He started AMMA Consulting in 2001 "because I needed a job," he said. AMMA also offers financial and management consulting to medical practices as well as a weight loss center franchise model in addition to its Integrated Medical Diagnostics subsidiary. Snapshot:

INTEGRATED MEDICAL DIAGNOSTICS
CEO: Julian Rinsler Web site: www.ammaconsulting.org
Address: 3701 FAU Blvd., Suite 210, Boca Raton 33431
Phone: [phone] ext. 81
E-mail:[e-mail] Phone: [phone]



Read more: Heart smart - South Florida Business Journal