MIDAS SHARE TIPS: Seeking healthy growth? Try Intelligent Ultrasound

Go to the imaging department of an NHS hospital and what do you see? A room full of people waiting for X-rays, ultrasounds and the like. Patients are unmanageable, receptionists are exhausted, doctors and technicians are tired.

Intelligent Ultrasound tries to make the process smoother, faster and safer. The shares are only 7.25p, but the price should rise significantly this year and beyond.

The company grew out of Cardiff University and started with a simulation tool to teach medical students how to perform ultrasounds. Using online teach-ins, virtual reality and other digital wizardry, junior doctors and sonographers learn how to scan patients and, crucially, how to interpret the results.

The company has grown all over the world and is now recognized as one of the top companies in its field, with about 10 percent of the market and an excellent reputation.

Four years ago, however, CEO Stuart Gall felt the time was right to move from the classroom to the clinic and develop equipment that would help medical teams in hospitals with real patients.

So far, two products have been developed: one for obstetrics, the other for certain forms of local anesthesia. Both use artificial intelligence to make the ultrasonic process simpler and more effective.

As every mother knows, a woman who reaches the 20th week of her pregnancy is asked for a scan. Gel is rubbed on her belly and a grainy image appears on the screen – her baby! It all seems miraculous, but as the probe is moved over the skin, medics have to check 21 parts of the fetus to make sure everything is okay.

The protocol is precise, the work is often stressful and it can take some time before the relevant images are safe. Intelligent Ultrasound’s software automates the process, alerting the doctor when the images are correct and alerting him or her if something is wrong.

The kit was clever enough to catch the attention of GE, the number one manufacturer of obstetric ultrasound devices in the world. Gall has now signed a contract with GE, whereby the American group will be the first to work with all software that Intelligent Ultrasound develops in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology.

The technology is already installed in approximately 5,000 GE machines, with an additional 10,000 expected to enter service by mid-2024.

Late last year, Intelligent Ultrasound received U.S. regulatory approval for a second product that helps anesthetists administer certain types of local anesthesia, known as nerve blocks.

They are used for chronic pain relief and routine surgery, are safer than general anesthesia, prevent sedation and mean patients can usually be treated within a day – better for them and cheaper for hospitals. But these jabs need to be done with the help of ultrasound to make sure the needle goes to the right spot. Intelligent Ultrasound’s latest gadget shows where nerves and arteries are in real time, so anesthetists can be absolutely sure they’re doing it right.

Today, even some of the most experienced anesthetists may be reluctant to administer nerve blocks because the process differs from their usual practice. The Intelligent Ultrasound kit is designed to give them more confidence and encourage greater acceptance of this type of anesthesia. The equipment is already in use at a number of UK hospitals, including John Radcliffe in Oxford, Hull Royal Infirmary, Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire and University College London.

Gall has received approval in the US and also has US clinics in sight, either independently or with a GE-like backer. Other ultrasound instruments are also planned for the coming years.

There are several ways to find out what’s going on in a patient’s body, including X-rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computed tomography (CT) scans. However, ultrasound is faster than some, safer than others, and cheaper than most.

Intelligent Ultrasound is a minnow at the moment, predicted to generate £10m in revenue by 2022, rising to nearly £18m by 2024. The business is loss-making, as Gall has reinvested the returns in the business, but it should turn a profit in the next two years and grow at a rapid pace thereafter.

Midas verdict: Intelligent Ultrasound is a small Cardiff-based company whose technology has been picked up by dozens of hospitals and US giant GE. The company is still in its infancy, but the prospects are good. Buy now for 7.25 cents and watch it grow.

Traded on: GOAL Ticker: IUG Contact: intelligentultrasound.com or 029 2075 6534