       
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
A Message from CardioNet Chairman and CEO, Randy Thurman
As CardioNet enters its first full year as a public company, we have set a clear path as a leader in the evolving healthcare segment of wireless medicine. Today, patients and physicians are placing a growing priority on the early diagnosis and treatment of diseases. This, combined with the call from the highest levels of government to revamp our healthcare system using technology to offer greater efficiencies and positive patient outcomes, places us in an excellent position to expand our market share. In addition, we will seek opportunities to leverage our technology platform for greater opportunities in both cardiology and related diagnostic and therapeutic areas. It is our belief that wireless medicine will play a major role in this evolving new era as the transformation continues with the convergence of technology and patient care. We offer compelling economic benefit to payers and patients that is increasingly being recognized in the marketplace.
Today, CardioNet is focused on mobile cardiovascular telemetry. Our real-time, beat-to-beat analysis and automatic arrhythmia detection system offers 24 hour digital monitoring through one of our state-of-the-art monitoring centers, eliminating memory constrained intermittent loop event monitors. Heart monitoring is likely just the beginning. The future opportunities for CardioNet in wireless medicine are limitless. We are continuing research and development in new and exciting areas and we look forward to reporting to you as we bring these opportunities to market.
Our goal is to continue to utilize our technology, resources and market position to provide the maximum return to all CardioNet stakeholders.
A Year of Solid Accomplishment
2008 marked a year in which CardioNet established the foundation for its long-term success and market leadership. Our revenues increased 56% to $120 million, leading us to our first full year of profitability. The recognition of our technology and the market opportunity was underscored by our successful initial public offering in March 2008, raising net proceeds of $83 million. This offering was one of the most successful in the year’s capital markets in any industry. Because of the broad interest in our business model and market potential demonstrated by institutional investors, we returned to the market in July 2008 for a secondary offering of 5 million shares, raising net proceeds of $152 million.
A major achievement in 2008 was our industry leadership in establishing reimbursement rates for both the technical and professional components of CardioNet Mobile Cardiac Outpatient Telemetry™ (MCOT™).
Illustrative of the benefits of our wireless technology platform was the continuing increase in acceptance of the CardioNet MCOT system by payors. We ended 2008 with more than 190 million covered lives and expect that this will continue to expand through 2009 and beyond. We are proud to have closed 2008 having surpassed the expectations of patients, physicians, payors, employees and shareholders.
Late in 2008, we took the first step in exploiting the new opportunities we believe are available in wireless monitoring by expanding our diagnostic applications for cardiology and electrophysiology practices. This new program, the Atrial Fibrillation (AF) Management Program, provides enhanced clinical utility for AF diagnosis, as well as medication management and post-procedure validation. This robust and comprehensive tool enables physicians to manage AF patients with a flexible monitoring program following catheter and surgical ablation procedures. CardioNet MCOT has proven to be nearly three times superior to loop event monitors at detecting clinically significant AF, a condition which affects 2.2 million people in the United States. This program is an excellent example of our continuing effort to improve patient lives and provide physicians with valuable real-time information for the management of disease.
Driven by a Clear Mission
We are driven every day by our stated mission to improve the quality of life worldwide through applications of wireless medicine. Our diagnostic outcomes result in daily improvements for patients such as the one described below:
Dorothy experienced two unexplained episodes of fainting. Her physician ordered testing that failed to provide a diagnosis. Shortly after, Dorothy was behind the wheel of her car when she fainted for a third time, causing an accident. She returned to her cardiologist who prescribed CardioNet MCOT. CardioNet detected a long pause in her rhythm and Dorothy’s physician was notified immediately. A pacemaker was implanted, and happily, Dorothy has experienced no further episodes.
CardioNet’s Future
Early in 2009 we outlined for investors a broad set of initiatives to strategically invest in the company to position us for long-term growth and market penetration. Our focus is to build share in the cardiac monitoring and diagnostic segment, while preparing the company for more strategic opportunities. We will expand our sales organization substantially and invest in customer service and monitoring operations capable of supporting our rapid growth. Key to our success is to be the clear innovator in the wireless healthcare market through our continued investment in research and development. In addition, our expanded clinical programs will continue to deliver new applications and additional patient diagnostics from CardioNet MCOT. At the same time, we will be exploring more strategic opportunities that could include geographic expansion, new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, and acquisitions. In 2008, CardioNet employees made major contributions to our success. As with most young, entrepreneurial companies, our employees have persisted through substantial change and succeeded in spite of considerable challenge. Thanks to the professionalism of our organization, we met and exceeded almost every goal established at the time of the public offering.
I want to take this opportunity to recognize the vision of our founder, Jim Sweeney, whose passion and drive led to the creation of CardioNet. Our goals for the future are no less ambitious. CardioNet brings to the market a combination of breakthrough technology and commitment to our stakeholders that inspires us to achieve
every day.
I am extremely excited to lead CardioNet in this next phase of the company’s development. I am confident in CardioNet’s ability to execute and deliver on our commitments in what will certainly be an exciting year.
Randy H. Thurman
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
|
|
|
|
