Singular Health Group Limited (ASX: SHG) looks like a health and medical story, but the story is really about software.
In my opinion, SHG needs investors to see them as a software company that just happens to have a medical story, CURRENTLY.
The technology is more than medical, and with recent announcements from the company, I am making the call that this is a company where investors should get some serious DYOR going.
Who is Singular Health Group Limited (ASX: SHG)?
Singular Health was listed on the ASX on 12th February 2021 with a Virtual Viewer for the medical sector. The concept was to allow patients to visualise their medical scans. Now, twelve months down the line, the initial strategy has developed and expanded to a more vertically integrated strategy.
I have done a couple of Coffee with Samso with Singular Health, one with Thomas Hanly, Managing Director and CEO:
- 3D Medical Imaging - Taking Health Care to the next Dimension: Singular Health Group Ltd (ASX: SHG)
and the latest with James Hill, the Chief Operating Officer of Singular Health:
Currently, SHG has a market capitalisation of AUD28.78M and is currently trading at AUD$0.28 as of 21 December 2021 (Figure 1). Looking at their 30th September Quarter report, there is about AUD$3.5M in the bank.
Figure 1: The share price chart for Singular Health Group Limited (ASX: SHG). (Source: Commsec).
The Business Concept - Scan To Surgery
The key to the whole business for Singular Health is the concept of Scan To Surgery. Scan To Surgery is the process of taking the whole process of the patient from having the initial diagnosis scan through to the recovery part of the required surgery.
Figure 1: The Singular health Business: Scan to Surgery – Seven Phases of Delivering Better Health Outcomes. (Source: Singular Health Group Limited)
The uniqueness of this is that Singular Health provides the software to collate all the previously individually isolated processes and connecting them into a systematic sequence of events.
The Scan to Surgery initiative aims to provide a single, unified software platform that bridges various siloed activities involved in patient-specific surgical planning and allows for a fully-featured, vertically-integrated software solution that can be used in part or in whole for a diverse range of medical applications. - Singular Health Group Limited
The whole business falls into seven identifiable stages which completes the Scan To Surgery phase. The phases are well documented in the website and I have provided the links below:
Software
Looking at their website now, there are four listed software. In February 2021, this was a company with only one software.
The initial product, MedVR has now expanded to become 3Dicom Viewer allowing end-users to interact with standard 2D medical images such as MRI & CT scans in 3D.
According to Singular Health, 3Dicom Viewer is primarily focused on visualisation. Its role is to facilitate improved practitioner communication to obtain true informed consent and adherence to treatment plans from patients.
The competitive advantage is that it is a multi-modal, cross-platform DICOM viewer. It is cost-effective as it is distributed online with low overheads. The software is currently being used by surgeons, dentists and other medical practitioners who are providing patients with before and after operative 3D scans.
3Dicom's Unique Value Proposition is the modular design, ability to rapidly load DICOM files on the device itself rather than requiring a cloud service, and ability to add AI models to the software for triage & segmentation.
The 3DicomVSP is an important tool within the Scan To Surgery business model. It allows medical professionals to plan the best way to treat their patients in 3D and/or Virtual Reality.
3DicomVSP is the flagship software that underpins Singular’s Scan to Surgery Initiative which is critical to deliver better health outcomes.
3DicomVSP underpins the Scan To Surgery approach with the intuitive user-interface driving the phases from 3D/VR scans review through to the provision of digitised surgical plans on tablets during surgery.
The concept of Health Academy is to help improve the health literacy of patients, students and some practitioners. This is achieved through the Health Literacy Hub website. The concept of educating the public on the process and the deliverable results of the Singular Health community is a really good idea.
As we all know and have come to understand, the process of educating users and potential users in a non-obtrusive manner is the best way to engage users, future users and supporters of the concept.
Online education is one of the fastest sector that is currently capturing markets from all forms of commerce and non-commerce topics. The online "How To" market is the fastest and largest growth in commerce at the moment.
The Singular Health concept is taping into a market that is eager to embrace and adopt new thoughts. This online sector is always wanting to find ways to learn more about how to better and be more efficient for now and in the future.
“Health literacy is the knowledge and skills needed to find, understand and use information and services to make decisions about health and healthcare.”-Tasmanian Department of Health
Singular's Health Academy has been developed to focus primarily on the current Year 11 and Year 12 Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) human biology courses, providing a proven, curriculum-aligned, course structure.
Health Academy combines traditional text-based content with multi-media such as illustrations and video, interactive 3D models with annotations and a fully-immersive Virtual Reality experience for a holistic and engaging educational experience.
Singular Health is currently preparing free and monetised courses for the general public as well as school-based programs.
The development of a use outside the medical field for the 3D/VR aspect of the business creates an impact, at least for me, that this company is more than a medical software business.
According to Singular, this came about in mid 2021 when the company was approached to provide a means for 3D/VR applications for the mining and drilling industry.
In a preliminary proof-of-concept, the Volumetric Rendering Platform (VRP) was adapted for use with drill-hole data, allowing for the 3D/VR visualisation of multiple drillholes and the assay results of each hole in an immersive 3D environment.
Singular Health made the following announcement on 16th November 2021:
GeoVR JV formed to commercialise 3D & Virtual Reality visualisation software
for mineral exploration & mine optimisation.
The start of this relationship was the completion of the purchase order for the GeoVR software as announced on 22nd February 2021:
SINGULAR HEALTH RECEIVES PURCHASE ORDER OF $170,000 FOR DEVELOPMENT OF GEOVR SOFTWARE
Whilst this is not the sole focus of the company, I can see that this software is far reaching. I have to agree that the medical sector is far bigger and far more lucrative than the mineral industry.
So What Does This All Mean?
Singular Health is a software company that is in the medical field.
Like the GeoVR partnership, it is very clear that the potential goes beyond the medical field. My opinion of this observation is not because there is more money to be made outside the medical field. This observation has more to do with the competitors who will see the potential of what this could mean in the medical field for Singular Health.
In the world of business, the intrinsic value of the business is sometimes only clear when somebody else wants it. When someone else wants what you are eyeing, it suddenly becomes a lot more attractive.
The company will probably say that they are a minnow in the world of giants. In the last Coffee with Samso with James Hill, he talked about consolidation and acquisition as a key component of the coming market.
There is no doubt that this is an emerging space and I for one, am keen to see more of these kinds of stories. At some stage of all our lives, we will want these kind of medical benefits to flow into our lives.
Disclaimer
The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer.
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