Cardiology, page-42

Just some random information that may or may not be related to the poster's hospital location and specific details.

Let's run with Townsville as the location and research there.
Townsville has had a cardiac surgery facility for a long time, mostly doing patients they expect to live unless emergency intervention, complicated patients get flown to Brisbane.
Townsville's function in QLD is to bridge the travel gap for North Queenslanders and Torres Straight Islanders that would otherwise need to go a long way to Brisbane. for context, Cairns to Brisbane is the same distance as Brisbane to Melbourne, let that sink in.
Until 2018, all valve replacements in Townsville were SAVI.
Townsville did their first TAVI in 2018. from late 2018- early 2020 Townsville did a total of 19 TAVI. That's not per year, total. So not many in the scheme of things.
The data from those patients were collated to write a paper on procedure safely and recommendations for TAVI/R to be decentralised. What this means is last year they submitted recommendations that TAVI/R can be done safely in regional areas and would have benefits for the health system due to the predicted increase in requirements for TAVI/R. We all have seen enough data to know why TAVI/R will be needed on a much larger scale.
This paper actually does a great service for us as we will likely be emerging when TAVR is starting to become a procedure done in far more locations and far more patients per year.

So, no offence to the poster or the cardiologist, I just think the priority of both are completely not in line with AVR's current place in our journey.
A hospital that does only a handful per year will be at the mercy of a few simple things. the hospital will have a supply contract with a provider and that decision is made much higher up the chain. Therefore unless the Dr is an investor in the industry, a research Dr attending international conventions or part of a huge program doing at least 10 times more patients a year, there really wouldn't be much knowledge of or interest in a developing valve not yet on the market IMO.

Generally speaking, any device actually has an easier time getting approved through the FDA and will take much longer before we're ever approved for use in Australia.
This is ok for investors as the initial big money is in the US market before we worry about cracking other markets. Not so good for patients waiting for the valve in Australia. However, you never know, WP is always referencing his proud Australian heritage and I wouldn't be surprised if he had an Aussie card to play in the near future.

IMO - do research, follow the science for investing - or not - in AVR and make the best choice you can of what's currently available if you are ever a patient as they are 2 completely unrelated situations right now. As we strive to change that, as an investor, I am really excited.

GLTAH DYOR