Profound Medical (NASDAQ:PROF; TSX:PRN) hosted its second PRO-Talk Live! educational event, by physicians for physicians, in Las Vegas this past weekend. The event featured a prestigious panel of experts, innovators, and guest speakers including global medtech leaders, Siemens Healthineers and Cook Medical.
With 70 physicians participating, including 31 current TULSA-PRO users and 39 prospective users, the program highlighted TULSA-PRO’s unparalleled flexibility in treating a wide range of prostate disease patients. Key opinion leaders shared their first-hand experience with the technology, while Profound’s management team presented clinical, technological, and commercial updates, with a focus on TULSA-PRO’s future potential.
Additionally, Siemens Healthineers and Cook Medical representatives discussed their shared vision with Profound: to create a comprehensive magnetic resonance (MR) solution to support the modern treatment pathway, enabling more accurate and precise prostate disease diagnosis, the TULSA procedure, and follow-up care.
In a research note titled, Full-Day Physician Seminar Highlights TULSA-PRO Prostate Cancer Treatment Technology’s Pathway to Standard of Care, Stifel analyst Rick Wise wrote, “We left PRO-Talk 2024 encouraged about TULSA-PRO’s adoption and growth potential. Specifically, we were heartened by the company’s clear strategic initiatives that push for an MRI-focused prostate cancer treatment paradigm. One notable program includes Profound’s partnership with Cook Medical and Siemens to create prostate cancer treatment centers offering comprehensive imaging (MRI), diagnostics (biopsies), and treatment (TULSA-PRO).”
Mr. Wise further added, “Bottomline: PRO-Talk Live underscored Profound’s positive 2024 reimbursement, strategic, and commercial progress, while also outlining the company’s plan to realize TULSA-PRO’s potential.”
Key Speakers at PRO-Talk Live! 2024 included:
- Joseph J. Busch, Jr., M.D. – Board-certified radiologist specializing in Interventional and diagnostic radiology at the Busch Center in Alpharetta, Georgia. With more than 40 years of experience, Dr. Busch leads efforts in treating prostate issues such as Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer.
- Y. Mark Hong, M.D., F.A.C.S. – Distinguished urologist and one of the world’s first board-certified specialists to complete a fellowship in Integrative Medicine. Dr. Hong is an expert in minimally invasive surgery and has been published extensively in international urological journals
- Laurence Klotz, M.D., FRCSC – Esteemed urologist and professor of surgery at the University of Toronto and the Sunnybrook Chair of Prostate Cancer Research. As a pioneering figure in the field of urology, with more than 550 peer-reviewed publications and numerous prestigious awards.
- Xiaosong Meng, M.D., Ph.D. – Assistant Professor in the Department of Urology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Meng’s clinical interests include prostate cancer and focal therapy for prostate cancer, kidney cancer, testicular cancer, and bladder cancer.
- Ram A. Pathak, M.D. – Assistant Professor in the Department of Urology at Mayo Clinic Florida. Dr. Pathak specializes in Urologic Oncology and has special interests in the diagnosis and management of prostate cancer.
- Peter A. Pinto, M.D. – Board-certified urologic surgeon and Tenure Track Principal Investigator, Senior Surgeon, Head of the Prostate Cancer Section, and Fellowship Director in the Urologic Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Pinto is an expert in minimally invasive urologic cancer treatment.
- Preston C. Sprenkle, M.D. – Assistant Professor of Urology at Yale University, specializing in the treatment of urologic cancer treatments using advanced technologies to minimize the impact on quality of life.
- Steven Sukin, M.D. – Board-certified urologist at Texas Urology Specialists, with more than 1,200 robotic surgeries performed, including radical prostatectomies and nephrectomies.
With a focus on MR-centric prostate cancer treatment:
- Siemens Healthineers presented on its game-changing MAGNETOM Free.Max MR scanner. Profound and Siemens Healthineers are collaborating to develop a complete therapeutics solution combining the TULSA-PRO system with Siemens’ MAGNETOM Free.Max.
- Pete Polverini, Vice President of Cook Medical’s Interventional MRI division discussed Cook’s development of a turnkey interventional MRI (iMRI) suite with Profound’s Chief Commercial Officer, Abbey Goodman.
A growing vision for the future:
“This past weekend’s PRO-Talk Live! event brought together both experienced and potential physician users for a day of face-to-face presentations and discussions, many of which highlighted TULSA’s clinical use across the entire prostate disease spectrum,” said Arun Menawat, Profound’s CEO and Chairman. “Quite frankly, education by existing users is a great way to market to future users, and TULSA is an ideal product for that strategy.”
“Importantly, as awareness and adoption of TULSA continues to grow, and we make final preparations for the permanent CPT Category 1 codes for the procedure going into effect at the beginning of 2025, expanding physician and patient access will be a very important driver of our success,” added Dr. Menawat. “To that end, we were thrilled that two global leaders like Siemens Healthineers and Cook Medical were able to share their respective visions for incorporating TULSA-PRO and their own products and technologies into a total diagnostic and interventional MR solution that can streamline workflow, optimize cost of care, and most importantly, improve the treatment experience for urologists and their prostate disease patients.”
