Chris Potter: Hi, everyone. Are your various sites starting to see a backlog of patients who want or need the procedure, but are choosing to wait till 2025 when the permanent code isn’t in effect?
Arun Menawat: Yes, Chris, that’s a very interesting question. Actually, I can share two things with you. One is that we are now – this is, for the first time, we’re seeing patients at multiple sites that are being scheduled 60 to 90 days in advance. So I think that we are starting to see more streamlining of how they bring the patient into the TULSA pathway, and then they’re scheduling them based upon a fixed schedule. That actually was and has been an issue because we’re such a new technology that getting to routine pathways have been one of the things we’ve had to overcome. The second thing is that if I look at the number of patients that get educated or come to our website from where they get educated on TULSA, that number is 10,000 to 20,000 a month.
It’s a huge number. And yet you can see the number of patients being treated is still very modest. So our belief is definitely that there are a number of patients who are interested but are not able to get the treatment because it is pretty expensive today. And yes, we are hearing, because we talk to 300, 400 patients a month, and so we do hear from them, is that, hey, I really want TULSA, but if it’s only Gleason 7, can I wait six to nine months for reimbursement to kick in. So this is already staged. This is all indicative data. But yes, I think it’s a great question, and it is something that gives us more confidence about the future.
Chris Potter: Thank you. And just one other. Is there anything else you can say about your instinct about utilization post January 2025? If I’m doing the math right, I think your systems are averaging 20 to 25 procedures per year. Could that number be 35 or 40 procedures per year in 2025 when reimbursement is in effect?
Arun Menawat: Yes, I think that we’re not like a drug company, so it’s not going to just happen in one day. But I do think that the number of procedures per site will increase in a step change fashion, so we’re not out of the realm of possibilities of what you’re saying.
Chris Potter: Thank you, Arun.
Arun Menawat: Thank you, Chris.
Operator: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Craig [indiscernible] with UBS. Please proceed with your question.
Unidentified Analyst: Good afternoon and thank you for taking my questions. The last gentleman asked a few of the questions I was going to ask. In terms of reimbursement, is there any color, any comments you can make about what physicians or hospitals systems are saying to you about what the reimbursement may do to their plans for deploying more systems and serving more patients? Is there any color you could give us on that topic from their side?
Arun Menawat: I think at the moment, my thinking is that we’re probably another quarter to two years away from that. I think we’ll get to that color most likely in the Q2 call. I think we should, by that time, have some information to be able to give you some reliable information.
Unidentified Analyst: That’s fair. I was just curious. The first part about the patient demand and interest and procedure is very helpful. All right. Thank you.
Arun Menawat: You’re welcome. Yes, no, I think to the extent that we hear that number of sites report that many patients are asking for TULSA by name, I think from that perspective, we’re in decent shape.
Unidentified Analyst: I mean, my humble opinion is, I think this is just one person’s opinion, that there’s potential for some at the time that you guys think is right. Additional PR to get the stories out there in the social media, what have you on, just how effective, patient friendly, payer friendly, system friendly the procedures are. And so I think getting the word out I think you’re just starting to touch it. It’s my just one investor’s opinion. But I think the stories you read are tremendous in terms of the impact on patient’s lives. More PR around that, I think, would be to build up the demand, I think would be a good idea.
Arun Menawat: Agree. And I think that we are most certainly number one on the social media on this. And I do think that more of the PR, like, for example, late last year, AARP on their own picked up the story, and it really raised awareness. And I think that in 2024, you will see more of the news media picking up more and more of our urologists are also now talking to their local news media and providing the information. But bottom-line, you’re right. That is more and more likely in 2024 as well.
Unidentified Analyst: Awesome. Thank you. All right, keep the good work. Thanks so much.
Arun Menawat: Thank you.
Operator: One moment for our next question. We have a follow-up from the line of Brian Gagnon with Gagnon Securities. Please proceed with your question.
Brian Gagnon: First off, Mathieu, congratulations on your promotion. Very well deserved. My question is kind of a big picture question. So we’re talking about the potential with a Siemens kind of full continuum of care, and or GE and or Phillips at some point where a patient can walk into a urology practice and from finding out a modestly high Gleason score, they could go in, get diagnosed, get a biopsy, and get treated in a very short period of time, call it days, if not weeks, and walk out cancer free.
