Dane Andreeff: Yes. So what we’ve done, Jeff, we’ve laid a lot of leverageable areas in our business that – the old model of hiring 50 people and going out on sales and another $30 million in reimbursement and customer service and support, that’s not what we really need to do. We’re going to be able to – with reimbursement, hopefully effective October 1 with CMS; we see three areas of leverage. First and foremost we already have our manufacturer OEM. They could start producing very, very quickly with this future demand, and we are collecting a lot of future demand with our inquiries and folks wanting PoNS therapy. The second area of leverage, Jeff, is just our hub, our telemedicine, tele appointment, e-commerce e-prescribing hub that is highly leverageable.
A patient can come in there and our greatest advocate is the patient right now, and they could come in there with a prescription and get that sold and the PoNS device is sent to that patient within two days, and they bring that their device PoNS therapy straight to their registered PoNS physical therapists and start training for the first two weeks. Another leverage point in our model is, right now it takes almost three months to get a neurologist appointment post COVID. It used to take 30 days on average now three months. If a patient wants to come through our site, we have partnered with UpScript and a third-party group of neurologists and prescribers if they’re willing to be diagnosed, they could have an appointment for $25 and meet with a neurologist and have that basically online meeting.
And if they are diagnosed with gait deficit, that neurologists will fill out a prescription and e-prescription for PoNS, and it will be fulfilled and they’ll start their process. The last place where we see a lot of leverage is our online PoNS module training for physical therapies for them to become registered PoNS physical therapists. Right now, all they have to do is send us an e-mail, their clinic, their name, their number, and once we validate their PT number, OT number, they are now – they gather access to the software and it’s free to them. And within three hours or less, they are – they become registered PoNS strain. So we could fill in the map very quickly with demand for patients so that they do not have to drive 30, 40 minutes for a registered PoNS trainer.
They could either have their own, be trained up. If they already use a PT or they could look at our map and see the closest PT registered PT trainer, so that their first two weeks can start very quickly.
Jeff Cohen: So Dane, could you give us a sense of number of PTs that you anticipate being trained this year or give us a quarterly update as it plays out throughout the quarters?
Dane Andreeff: Yes. Jeff, we haven’t give those – haven’t given those numbers out for investors just yet. We are looking to eventually plan to do that with reimbursement so that analysts like yourself can track all our financial numbers that could track sales, and that includes prescribers, PTs and the like.
Jeff Cohen: Got it. Okay. Perfect. That’s it from us. Thanks for taking the questions.
Dane Andreeff: Great. Thanks Jeff.
Operator: And thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from Anthony Vendetti from Maxim Group. Your line is now open.
Anthony Vendetti: Thank you. Yes, good afternoon. So my question is about surrounding the therapeutic experience program. How many centers of excellence did you add in 2023? And any updates on the goals for the program? And then if you had specifically how many added in the fourth quarter?
Dane Andreeff: Yes, that would be the PoNS step clinical trial you’re referring to, correct, Anthony?
Anthony Vendetti: Yes. Yes, Dane.
Dane Andreeff: Yes. Yes. So we have six total sites of centers of excellence for the PoNS step. And I believe – yes, I believe – yes, I think we believe we’ve announced all six of them.
Anthony Vendetti: Okay. And in 2024, how many would you like to add?
Dane Andreeff: We are at full enrollment for now. We will not be adding any more. And I think we announced third and fourth quarter, we’ll be providing additional information on some of those results for the first 14 weeks.
Anthony Vendetti: And I don’t – I may have missed this because I was on another call, but I know you went to the Physical Therapy Association Conference last year in San Diego and this year in Boston. I was wondering if you could talk about the recruitment efforts, how that went also new potential whether it’s physical therapists or what else you were able to learn lean from the conference.
Dane Andreeff: Yes. So the APTA is one of our best conferences that we present. We have a wonderful booth. Our mechanism of action is on the TV. It usually brings in a lot of people that are – that never hurt of PoNS, they become very, very curious. We are the only prescribed treatment there for all these PT clinics, both nationally, super regional and regional and also mom-and-pop. There was roughly 17,000 APTA members and the like that show up in the conference in Boston. We’ve had a tremendous amount of inquiries from the PTs. One big notice this year was a lot of VA rehab specialists, neuro rehab PTs given that veterans do have a tremendous amount of balancing gait issues, and that’s not only in MS, but that’s in traumatic brain injury and the number one indication that the VA treats is in stroke.
Anthony Vendetti: Perfect. Perfect. Okay, I think with that all I’ll hop back in the queue. Thanks, Dane. Appreciate it.
Dane Andreeff: Thank you, Anthony.
Operator: And thank you. And I am showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to Dane for closing remarks.
Dane Andreeff: Thank you, everyone, for following Helius Medical Technologies. As you just heard we are very excited to be right in front of some very significant milestones, and we look forward to keeping you updated as we pursue coverage and reimbursement and continue bringing PoNS therapy to the millions who need it. Thank you.
Operator: And thank you. This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
