Introduction
M3 Medical has developed a set of unique medical instruments for use by practitioners and clinicians in a variety of disciplines. It is designed for use in remote diagnosis and telemedicine applications. The first of these products will be ready for market in 6 months, and it, and subsequent products are well positioned to serve both the current, and emerging markets for direct digital connection of medical equipment to computer based management systems.
Products
The patented base technology is first embodied in a handheld, battery operated imaging tool with attachments for application in otolaryngology and endoscopy. The device has a color LCD screen for direct viewing by the physician and built-in wireless video for use with a remote color monitor and/or computer. The unit communicates directly with a computer system to record the images with simultaneous voice input to document the diagnostic process. It can be used for telemedicine via a USB port and standard teleconferencing processes. A working pre-production prototype has been built, five patents have been granted. Other U.S. and international patents are pending.
Market and Competition
There is a worldwide market for M3 products in both physicians’ offices and hospitals. The 790,000 active physicians and 7,569 hospitals each with an average of 10 examining rooms in the U.S., give M3 a market of several tens of thousands of units. Worldwide, there are over 3,000,000 physicians and several tens of thousands more hospitals with hundreds of thousands of examining rooms. Further, the multiplicity of specializations available for the base M3 technology affords the opportunity for the sale of multiple units per physician or organization.
The competition for video based otoscopes and endoscopes range from the simple to elaborate which are either lower in functionality or much higher in price than the M3 products.