Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the 4DMedical Limited market update on acquisition. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please enter it into the ask a question box and click Submit. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Andreas Fouras, CEO. Please go ahead.
Hi, everybody. Thank you for your interest in today's presentation. I'm incredibly excited about where 4D stands, and really been looking forward to the opportunity of sharing our thinking and where we see this acquisition taking us. Over the course of today's presentation, I'm gonna be taking you through exactly the deck that was lodged with the stock exchange on Monday morning. But I will be, you know, in order to keep the time of the presentation to a sensible level and allow a lot of time for questions, I will be skipping some slides here and there. I think a great place to start will be the taking through the material acceleration that happened in our news flow in our second quarter.
We at 4D have been working incredibly hard, building the fundamentals of the company from the ground up, and it's great when that hard work that's often not seen beneath the surface surfaces itself through announcements as these things come to pass. Very excited with Medicare reimbursement coming to be. We'd previously in May told the market that we felt that we'd be in a position to gain category one code with AMA, which would then facilitate us attacking or gaining payment, gaining reimbursement. We've been able to manage the spectacular success of getting payment under our category three, which now makes that category one more or less unnecessary to us.
So not only have we brought this forward by about a year, we've also been able to win substantially more than we were expecting at $299 per procedure. Almost certainly, this is gonna allow us to earn more than the $176 we've been expecting per procedure for the technology. So that sits on XV. On CT LVAS, we now have CT LVAS having entered the U.S. market. So side by side, CT LVAS in the market, side by side with XV LVAS, really allows us the game plan that's been operating in Australia and has been doing, particularly in recent months, really accelerating our business here in Australia.
So it has us in the market, expanding access, and in particular, it expands access in that U.S. market for folks who, you know, coming into for their healthcare, are going to get a CT scan as part of their Healthcare. So they're already getting a CT scan. It's very easy to add our software as a layer on top of that. Additionally, we're very excited about where CT:VQ is going, and having CT LVAS approved, it de-risks the regulatory pathway for CT:VQ. And then, you know, to demonstrate the commercial value of these changes in the market, and in particular, our CMS reimbursement, our SaaS contracts coming live for two sites in the U.S., really just demonstrates that, you know, Medicare has been the key barrier to entry for us in that market for some time.
We've been articulating that as us seeing the U.S. market for us as having two avenues, one through the pathway of reimbursement and the other through customers that do not require that, that reimbursement. And that is, of course, both the VA and Department of Defense. But now that reimbursement has been unleashed, you know, we are seeing dramatic progress in the in that reimbursed pathway. Also, you know, I've been very excited to announce the partnership with Philips Healthcare. Philips are an iconic brand, one of the World's Leaders in Healthcare, one of the largest Manufacturers and "238760 4DMedical M&A Announcement.mp3"
You know, they are out of those large vendors, out of those iconic brands that many of you will have heard of, they are absolutely the lead player in lung health. And additionally, specifically in the United States, they have the largest market share of all the major players in that area. So the way this partnership will work will be that initially, we will be providing software packages or solutions onto the Philips catalog, and Philips and their 25,000 Salespeople in the United States will be out, boots on the ground, selling those products. We can then expand outside of the VA to the market at large. And then we are also talking about the opportunity from there of expanding out to global opportunities.
I'm really very, very pleased and excited by the level of engagement we have with Philips leadership all the way up to the very top of the organization. We are really on a fast track in terms of, you know, progressing to these next steps with them, you know, which, as we've announced, are initially a teaming agreement and then a reseller agreement, which we expect to happen this calendar year and then early in the next quarter, respectively. So as I said, we have been working hard, building the company, building the fundamentals of the company, and you can see that surfacing above water with the rapid pace or the gaining of momentum in terms of our announcements. Here you can see that we anticipate that continuing throughout the rest of this financial year and beyond. So.
Here we have, you know, 10 really high-quality announcements that we can put out into the marketplace over the balance of the remaining 6 months of this financial year. We will be progressing with, you know, our VA, our VA pilot. We will be progressing with the incredibly needed ATOs or Authority To Operate, which are the IT approvals, to allow, after the trial, a national rollout. We are very confident about extending our engagement with Department of Defense, and we have a number of academic medical centers following on behind, Miami, you know, penetrating into that highly coveted AMC space in the U.S. We're not gonna talk very much about Australia and New Zealand in today's presentation, but things are going really very well.
Over recent months, we've expanded from one provider in Australia to four, and we've additionally had some really successful marketing campaigns that are growing the business at each of those sites. The Philips partnership is here, is listed as one single dot point, but I expect there will be multiple announcements around Philips, all of them supporting us in the market over the rest of the year. If we then skip down to the lowest dot point here, the funding and budget appropriations for the PACT Act, we are looking forward to the possibility of appropriations language being put in this year's budget from the U.S. Congress, further supporting 4D in our progress with the VA.
From there, let's talk about the transaction that we're so excited about, and, and as we get into the transaction, we'll start with an introduction to Imbio. Imbio are a leading solutions company that offer AI solutions in medical imaging across lung and heart conditions. You can see here they have seven products across heart and lungs, with the emphasis on, on the lungs. Four of those are FDA approved and three are in progress. In particular, I draw your attention to the Lung Density Analysis package up in the top left corner. This is their flagship product and a product that I've heard about, known about for, for many, many years. Had the, the benefit of meeting and knowing the founder of Imbio for about six years now, and, as I met him and learned about this technology, I've been impressed by it over this whole time.
We progress to this alternative view of Imbio, where you can see they are a recognized leader in lung and cardiothoracic imaging AI. And as I said, they have, you know, incredible reputation in that space that's substantially led by their flagship product, which is known in the scientific world as Parametric Response Mapping. They have forecast calendar 2023 revenue of $3 million with an underlying growth rate in excess of 100% year-on-year. They achieve access to the market through two major channels. The first that I'll talk about is their Companion Diagnostics. That's where they neither sell to the customer or to the healthcare provider, but instead partner up with a provider of an underlying good or service.
So for example, Olympus, who are leaders in endobronchial valves, or Genentech, who are a household name in the pharmaceutical space. The Olympus arrangement is the one with the strongest current run rate. Olympus have an incredible product, a device known as an endobronchial valve, which is something of the order of about 5 millimeters in size, which can be placed in the lung through a procedure at hospital. But in order to have that procedure, first, you undergo an Imbio imaging procedure, and that information is passed to the doctor and the provider to really allow them to make sure the procedure goes smoothly and that you're appropriate for that. And in return, you know, Olympus bill typically about $25,000 per procedure, and in return, Imbio net about $1,000.
Then they have a very exciting general radiology practice, where they are selling annual subscriptions to hospitals in the order of $20,000-$50,000 per site. It's an incredibly exciting opportunity, and you can quickly do the math. There's about 6,500 hospitals in the U.S.. So while this business has been growing at t his part of the business has been growing at greater than 100% year-on-year, they're now at 55 sites through their direct sales team. There is really still a lot of room for that to continue growing at that rate. I think here we have the core of why we've performed this acquisition, and how it really offers incredible value to 4D and to our Shareholders.
4D, as you all know, offers globally unique functional lung imaging. AI imaging providers in the sector are typically known as offering value to the structural side of imaging. And the combination of our functional lung portfolio and the AI technology offered by Imbio allows us to attack a market position of owning the lung, or said in alternative ways, as being a comprehensive or a full-service offering. Our two lung diagnostic technologies, plus the four from Imbio, gives us six products across that sector and really allow us to be the leader in this space. And to say, for example, to a customer: "You don't need to talk to anybody else.
You can get everything you need in the lung from 4D." Imbio, in terms of commercialization, are at 255 sites in total, in terms of their global sales footprint. So that's 255 opportunities for us to cross-sell our technology into those sites. Additionally, there's the same opportunity to sell Imbio product to our sites and also into the new Philips Partnership, really offering significant, significant revenue or sales synergies. Also, by the very nature of our synergistic offering, sorry, our comprehensive offering across all of the lung, really allows us now to target lung cancer screening programs, as well as COPD and heart disease screening programs across the United States and Australia. We are the best-positioned company to offer this comprehensive offering in this really very high-value space.
Additionally, Imbio has been targeting the VA as we have, and now that this acquisition is complete, their networks, their agreements are completely complementary to ours. Here for a moment, I'm gonna stop and talk about the dollars and cents of this, and in particular, focus on their revenue. Imbio had, as said, you know, $3 million for this calendar year and an expected revenue of $6.3 million for next year. It's worth noting, we have a high degree of confidence in this revenue projection, as 55% of this revenue is already contracted. So it's revenue of a very high quality. It's growing at 100% or greater year-on-year, and with a gross margin of 84%, and is achieved through sticky re-recurring contracts.
So really, the very highest quality revenue, making this a great, a great deal from this purely financial perspective. But of course, it's not just that. This acquisition allows us to own the lung, to be a comprehensive offering. It allows us to cross-sell our technologies, and there are also some cost synergies here. So cost synergies, revenue synergies, high-quality revenue, really extending the reach of 4DMedical, and I think makes this an incredibly good, good deal for us and all of our Shareholders. I'll just pick out the highlights of the transaction, of this acquisition. To me, the key points are a $25 million cash component, that's approximately AUD 38.5 million.
Then, three transactions of up to $10 million, $5 million and $5 million, so a total of up to $20 million of stock following. In order to achieve those stock earn-outs, however, there are some really robust targets that need to be met, which and three-quarters of that depends on growth in revenue. So there's a 75% balance on revenue growth, with 25% on product development. So I think from here is where I'll be starting to skip more of the slides, but on this slide, I will pick one key point, you know, which is significant growth opportunities in place.
What we mean here with this point is that Imbio has been delivering this really excellent growth year on year in terms of their revenue, with modest sales and marketing resources. Post this acquisition, you know, they now have access to a strong team in both Australia and the United States under the Leadership of Matt Tucker as our Global Chief Commercial Officer. So by adding our marketing capability. And let me just give you a simple example of that. A few weeks ago, 4DMedical had a large presence at the RSNA, the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago, the world's biggest radiology conference.
We are committed to making that investment year on year, and to bring Imbio to that conference next year is gonna be is gonna cost almost nothing, and yet offer them significant opportunities to grow their revenue. Here you can see our combined offering, and you can see the clarity that, you know, we have our CT Products here, and additionally adding therefore lung and three Heart products, once again, under that CT Platform. We still have complete coverage across X-ray and CT, and of course, as said before, a complete coverage against both functional and structural diagnosis to be the leader in lung imaging. I'll progress. So here, really, I think the key message on this slide is that very much like 4DMedical, there's a similar concept in terms of how Imbio Operates.
That is, that they gain CT images, they apply their AI technology, they deliver a report to physicians, and that leads to early detection and referral for care to improve patient outcomes. Very similar model to the way 4DMedical Technology operates. And here you can see, particularly on the right-hand side, the imaging platform that makes that happen. This is the piece of software that sits behind the scenes and moves the images around. So not only do we gain the benefits of these four products, we also gain the benefit of an imaging platform that has been in market for quite a number of years, and is robustly tested and validated across a range of situations. So there's areas that we can learn from Imbio, in addition to their technology.
So we have real technological synergy in addition to, sales and cost synergies. We're particularly excited about the companion diagnostics. I think this is something that may be new to many of you, and I think it is really a novel means of penetrating into the market, and they've been doing incredibly well. To date, that's principally been through their partnership with Olympus. But Genentech is really a very exciting opportunity there, and I think as the equip Lung Imaging Technology that you can see on their product pipeline gets to FDA approval, you know, that will really empower and, you know, power up that Genentech opportunity. So here you can see, you know, their really strong performance.
The one thing to note when looking at this graph is that the companion diagnostic contract with Olympus has had a minimum annual recurring revenue of AUD 2 million built into that contract. When we take that into consideration, the underlying companion diagnostic revenue improves from 20% year-on-year to about 100% year-on-year. So we have 100% year-on-year growth underlying in the companion DX and about 120% year-on-year growth in the general radiology market. You can see as their revenues grow, that there's good growth also, and strengthening of their gross margin percentage from 80%-85%. Also here, you can see the breakdown of their network. 73 companion DX sites and, you know, 127 distribution sites and 55 direct.
So each of those 255 sites is an opportunity for cross-selling. So I think as we get to the... You know, as we've been progressing over the last few years, I think you've all been able to see that we have been strengthening the team at 4DMedical, and we have some really incredible supporters, advisors, and mentors in this process. You know, it'd be remiss of me not to point out the generous personal mentorship that Sam Hupert provides to me. But he also advises the company and the board. Professor Bruce Thompson, a past president of the peak body for doctors and lung practitioners in Australia, and of course, Dr. David Shulkin, who more recently joined the team.
Before this, was ninth Secretary of the VA, so he ran every aspect of VA operations, and had that position across both Trump and Obama administrations. We also have, you know, an incredible board. I'm pleased and proud with of Lil Bianchi stepping up to the Chair position, and also with Dr. Geraldine McGinty, who is absolutely one of the United States' foremost radiologists. Dr. McGinty not only is a Radiologist, but she's also a Health Economist and teaches into the MBA program at Weill Cornell. Her expertise is in that boundary between healthcare and business, making sure that businesses like us, like ours, get paid through reimbursement.
So in summary, we have crossed over a threshold where we've built up significant momentum and pace of our news flow with reimbursement, with new sites coming on board, FDA approval of CT:VQ for us, the Philips partnership. But we are now in this new mode, a new pace of news flow, and we expect this to continue to accelerate over the course of the rest of this financial year and beyond. We've now also conducted an incredibly synergistic and higher value acquisition. Function plus structure gives us a comprehensive offering, sales synergies into 255 sites, population health opportunities in lung cancer screening, as well, as well as other screening programs. Expand, accelerates, and grows our footprint in the VA. High value from a financial position, long-term contracts, high gross margin, revenue synergies, cost synergies, platform and technology synergies.
4DMedical plus Imbio gives that classic one plus one is three. I feel that we have the same, the same rings true for our Philips and 4DMedical partnership, and now we can close the loop and a cross-sell between Imbio and Philips. So really, we have one plus one, plus one equals nine on this deal. We've got the underlying structure there. We've got the hard work that's built the company from the ground up over these past years and the team to make it happen. So thank you very much for your sitting through that presentation, for your interest in 4DMedical, and I'll be very happy to pass over to questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type your question into the Ask a Question box and click submit. Your first question comes from Vince Nigro. Hi, Andreas. Congratulations on this exciting acquisition. Can you see 4DX revenue scaling up significantly in the March quarter of calendar year 2024? Given from the first of January 2024, we will have reimbursement, i.e., Uni of Miami deal, along with any other academic uni hospitals we sign up.
Thank you, Vince, for the question. And absolutely, we see our March quarter scaling up. You know, for all of the reasons that you articulated and, you know, in addition to these other partnerships with Imbio and Philips. So we're really looking forward to, you know, significant step up into that March quarter and then continued strong growth from there.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Naveed Fazal Bawa. Will you eventually be able to sell both 4DMedical and Imbio products on a single scan to the same customer with full reimbursement?
Look, that's absolutely where we're taking this. Moving them onto a single platform is something that we are both very eager to do. But of course, we'll also pay some appropriate care and diligence into the process that we do that. We see in front of us, long history of other companies through acquisition and mergers, you know, disappointing and frustrating their customers by changing too many things too quickly. We will be striking an appropriate balance between driving forward to a singular platform that offers, you know, value and convenience for our customers, but also without, you know, stepping on our toes on our way to get there.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Patrick Downs. Was Imbio a required or targeted acquisition to really cement 4DX tech and push revenue, or was it more an opportunistic takeover of a potential competitor?
... Look, I think the answer there is that, you know, both of those elements are true in this case. You know, as we've solidified our position in terms of putting the fundamentals in place for commercialization, both in Australia and the United States, we have seen and been excited by the opportunity to complete the offering from our strength in function across into structure, and therefore allowing ourselves not only to grow our market share through the revenues of the functional component, but also to build a natural moat around that. As I said, to have the-- not requiring the need to for one of our customers to talk to any of our anyone else in our sector.
But, you know, so as we've been out in the market, looking and thinking about, you know, what might fit best into that, we have had, you know, a, a time-sensitive opportunity here with this acquisition, with Imbio. And, you know, that happens to go side by side with my long-standing relationship and knowledge of Imbio as a company, and their long-standing knowledge and relationship of who 4DMedical is. So all of those factors combined and allowed us to, you know, to really negotiate an incredible deal and to get it done in a very short period of time. So, you know, really, that's turned out, this really, you know, it's hard to imagine this having turned out better.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Michael Lai: Are there any Imbio agreements or distribution networks that the company will immediately target to accelerate XV technology and the possible timing of any such commercial developments?
Yes. So I think if we look at their network, you know, you'll see on that, on the slide, where we talked about, you know, the, the Imbio network, and I think the 55 sites with a direct sales contact are, you know, right at the center of the bull's eye of where we're gonna start those conversations.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Michael Lai: Given that Imbio has four CE Mark certified and four Health Canada-approved products, will the company consider expanding their commercialization in Europe and Canada? Any thoughts on leveraging Imbio's regulatory expertise to get XV Technology in these markets, too?
Look, I'll answer that question back to front. So we're absolutely excited by Imbio's regulatory expertise across a wide range of markets. That's absolutely an asset to us now on the back of this acquisition. You know, and look, I think that we can, we will be cautious. We're excited about opportunities to grow outside of our Australia and U footprint. And I think that, however, this has to be done in a really intelligent and cautious fashion. And what I mean is, we have to be careful about how we deploy boots on the ground and how we spend, how we grow the OpEx of the company.
I think at the moment, our assessment of the best places, the best return on investment for growing, you know, for using the most modest OpEx to get the biggest growth in revenue, we see those opportunities as being centered on Australia and the U.S. market. However, it doesn't mean we can't dip our toe in the water, and I think particularly through distribution arrangements and similar arrangements, that can be our entrée into those. That's something that we're gonna keep the market informed about as we make those decisions over calendar 2024.
Thank you. Your next question comes from David Nye again: Are Imbio planning to develop any new products? What will happen to their Cardiac products?
I'm sorry, I just c ould you just, just the last few words of that question, what will happen?
What will happen to their cardiac products?
So look, I think, they have a very exciting portfolio of R&D, and they also have an incredibly talented R&D Team who have done an amazing job of building, with their modest size, building this impressive portfolio that's in front of them. You know, I think that, the real opportunity for us is now on the back end of this merger, is to identify, you know, those key areas of strength in each of those R&D teams and make sure that, you know, now that we are working together, that we can, you know, that we have the most strategic view of where those highly valuable R&D assets are directed. So, you know, the short answer, David, is, you know, we'll absolutely be continuing to see new products coming out of Imbio.
But I think that we can see some changes in what that pipeline looks like, on the other side of this merger.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Tom O' Bradjick: Can Imbio be integrated with the XV Scanner, and do you expect any orders soon?
The XV scanner is progressing really very well. The scanner is operating, and, and, working as expected, which is, you know, which is really great news for such a, for such a novel piece of technology. The next stages for us are deploying one or more scanners across, into the United States, and then, conducting our clinical studies there and, you know, rolling that then into, an FDA submission. On the, on the back end of an FDA submission, you know, is the, then the pathway to, to revenue, sales for that product. Now, t here absolutely are some opportunities for us to place some systems there, before FDA approval.
But, we have to be very cautious around, you know, strict rules and guidelines around commercialization of technology ahead of FDA approval in the U.S. market.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Dean Egan. Will Imbio be used to process XV LVAS scans from all your previous trials to allow it to be able to interpret future XV scans and offer diagnosis to doctors?
Thanks, Dean, for that question. I think the intersection of AI and 4D's technology is incredibly exciting. I think that there is, you know, given that our technologies, for example, our technologies that run analyses on CT scans, each of us have the opportunity to go back through our clinical trials and, you know, with the appropriate permissions from patients who participated, you know, go back and reanalyze. So for example, we can take possibly a CT:VQ clinical trial and rerun those CT:VQ scans through the Imbio technology. Vice versa, we can take PRM clinical studies and rerun and have a look and see what does the CT:VQ or the CT:VQ look like on those studies.
So there's an immediate opportunity to cross-fertilize and cross-pollinate those technologies there, not only offering value to our research partners, but then very soon after, to our patients and doctors. Then, as I think you were suggesting, you know, the opportunity to lay AI layers on top of all of these technology platforms, you know, absolutely does exist, and that's something that we are looking at.
Your next question comes from Tina Wilson. Could you talk about some of the competitors of Imbio?
Sure. I think that this landscape is quite complex, and I'm sure I understand you know what you mean, but Imbio doesn't really have a lot of competitors for the contracts that they offer. And I think this is one of the things particularly that's exciting about the companion diagnostic space, is it offers a completely different competitive landscape. So really the way you can refer to, for example, the Olympus partnership is, you know, who are Olympus's competitors in that space? And I think that you know Imbio has really been offering Olympus the opportunity to grow their market share. And I think when we bring on board 4DMedical's technology into that space, I think that only opens up that opportunity further.
But, you know, to answer your question, for example, Olympus in that valve space, in endobronchial valves, you know, their primary competitor is a company called Pulmonx. In the general radiology space, you know, there are a number of providers who offer AI solutions in that general radiology space. But, you know, to my knowledge, there aren't really-- they don't have competition, particularly, you know, through both the leadership position they have with their PRM product, and their concentration on, on heart and lung. However, you know, if you wanted to go out and do some reading, you know, you could look at a number of companies, such as VIDA Diagnostics.
You could look at Fluidda, and you know, you could look in that space, and perhaps from there, you could see a number of other companies. But I think that they have a strong leadership position, and when, You know, that's what we are, why we're so excited. Their strong leadership position in their sector, side by side with our, you know, our dominant position. We really are the only player in the, in the, on the functional side, in combination, really builds a significant moat around our, our now joint entities.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Harry Davies. What is going to drive demand for scans under the contracts, such as the ones in Memphis and Detroit? Are there doctors interested in prescribing 4DX scans? If so, what currently prevents them?
So, you know, right now, our Memphis and Detroit contracts, we're very excited and we think these are just the first of many. We're confident that we're gonna be able to keep delivering news of new agreements such as Memphis and Detroit. The contracts are due to start on the first of January. And you know, without that contract, without us connecting our systems, our IT platform, to that site, we're unable to deliver that service to them. So but we will be connecting those IT pipes up and being ready to do so from the first of January. They absolutely do have doctors that are looking to prescribe the product and, you know, particularly, with.
You know, there's no coincidence that this contract starts on the first of January, when our reimbursement starts. So being able to have a number of their patients being able to utilize the Medicare reimbursement really is a key driver for that.
Your next question comes from Dan S. Well done on everything so far. When you come to charge hospitals and healthcare institutions for scans performed, will you be billing them with a minimum number of scans per year, a floor on how much they pay you per year, or is it always just payment per scan, and then you have to encourage them to scan more?
You know, it's a great question, and I think that we have some examples here in front of us right now. So where we have a partnership with a radiology provider such as I-MED, you know, that particular partnership is a pay per scan relationship, and it's quite straight up and down in that way. And you see now that Imbio, with their relationships that they have with hospitals in the United States particularly their direct sales portion of that market. They're on the other extreme of that, where they have a fixed price per scan.
You know, we're also you would have learned through the news of our Miami relationship, that we've gone down the middle road of those two pathways with that Miami partnership, where we have a minimum contribution, so a minimum number of scans. But if we deliver above that minimum number of scans, then we can—there is upside as we grow that. And I think that, you know, our expectation is that middle of the road process, as we have with Miami, is likely to be our preferred.
But, you know, there will be some contracts that, depending on the nature of the party, for example, we know the VA has a strong preference for either blocking scans up into groups or having a fixed number of scans on an agreement, you know, through to some sites in our ANZ Market that will be more on the pay-per-use. So I know I you know, it might seem like I haven't answered that. We'll be utilizing the full spread of those options to both satisfy our customers and wherever we can, maximize our revenue.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Brian Lowe. Will there be additional regulatory approvals required post-merger of the two companies?
Look, we have, and now between us, you know, in the United States, two, you know, natively 4D products, plus four new FDA-approved products from Imbio. So six FDA-approved products. And we will be selling those, you know, from, you know, day in, day out. But there are an additional... You know, we are still, on our pipeline, we still have our, CT:VQ software and the XV Scanner to progress through, through regulatory approvals, and there are an additional three Imbio products to gain regulatory approval. So, you know, we're starting right now with six, and, you know, there's another five to go. But, you know, that-- we anticipate the, the tempo of that to slow down over time.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Erica Hasty: Congratulations on your inventiveness. As an old RN, I can totally appreciate the tremendous benefits your technology offers end users, particularly patients. Is it possible that your scans may be used on other areas of the body, e.g. the head?
We have a vision to be the, you know, over the long term, to be the premier information company for, for healthcare. So if you wanna know what's happening inside your body, that we offer the best solutions for that. We absolutely have started, and we've put the center of that bull's-eye in, in the lung, and we continue to see that the lung is the center of, of our efforts. Imbio has brought into the fold three heart products, and there's a very easy step, we think, from the lungs to the lungs plus heart. And Imbio have already stepped off into that space.
It's worth noting that 4D has had in its, in its intellectual property, in its patent portfolio, some heart patents for some time, and we're waiting for the right moment for, for it to be the right return on investment, to start to activate those patents and start investing into that space. So I think that, you know, for us, we can see, you know, As . I said, use that bull's-eye example, the lungs are right in the center, and then the next ring is heart plus lungs. I think there are also some really significant opportunities in cancer, in general. And I think that that-- if we have leadership in heart and lungs, you know, that is already the majority of, of diagnostics. If we have some value that we can add in the cancer space, that further, that further accelerates that position.
I think that extending it to the head is, while very exciting idea, is, you know, at the moment, well and truly off our forecast. But I think we do really want, and we are in a position to, as I said, to at least start to think about adding out that next ring around the bull's-eye of heart plus lung.
Your next question comes from Tom O'Bradick. In May, you said you were targeting a rollout to 100 I-MED sites by Christmas. Can you tell us how that currently stands?
Yeah, look, that's a fair question, and that's absolutely accurate. We were in the market saying that we had an anticipation of reaching 100 sites at I-MED by Christmas, and we won't be hitting that target. And that's something that we've done very carefully on our side. Our rollout through the I-MED network is going very well. But we hadn't, in the early parts of this calendar year, had the success in each site that was open in the way that we wanted to. The growth of scans per site was not aligned with how we saw the technology evolving or the product evolving in the Australian market. So we've slowed that down a little bit, added significant effort to marketing and to training at each site.
Now that that's really been showing dividends, we're in a position to put our foot back on the gas and grow the number of sites across the I-MED network. It's also worth noting, though, that we've now expanded not just to I-MED. We now have four providers across Australia, of course, including Integral, who are also a national provider in that space. I think that we have multiple providers. We have sales, marketing, and training campaigns on the ground that have now shown to be working. And I think that we'll be in a position to, you know, really significantly grow through the 55 or so sites that we're in right now, and grow towards to 150 or so sites over the course of calendar 2024.
Thank you. Unfortunately, the time allocated for today's presentation has come to an end. I'll now hand the conference back to Mr. Fouras for closing remarks.
Look, I really, I really want to thank everyone for your interest in 4D and, and sitting in through today's presentation and Q&A session. As I said earlier, we have been working very hard behind the scenes at 4D, building the company from the ground up, and all of that hard work is now, you know, yielding announceable results on a, on a regular basis. We add together that, you know, that underlying structural work at 4D, both in terms of product, sales, marketing, the partnerships now with Imbio, and with Philips, and the people we have on, on the ground, including the leaders on the board and our advisory board. I think we have the perfect mix of ingredients to really deliver an amazing calendar 2024. So I can't wait to share all of that with you.
Once again, thank you for being involved and being part of the story.