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Parallax Health Sciences seeking to expand remote patient-monitoring platform

Published: 06:05 13 Apr 2020 EDT

Snapshot

The California company's proprietary platform Parallax Care tracks patients’ vital signs for adherence to their medical and drug regimens

iphone with apps
  • Telehealth company focused on remote diagnosis, treatment and monitoring patients with chronic diseases
  • Proprietary platform Parallax Care tracks patients’ vital signs for adherence to their medical and drug regimens
  • Developing low-cost, rapid coronavirus (COVID-19) test

What Parallax Health does:

Parallax Health Sciences Inc (OTCQB:PRLX) is an outcomes-driven telehealth company that focuses on cost-effective remote diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of patients with chronic diseases.

Based in Santa Monica, California, the company offers a proprietary platform called Parallax Care under which the vital signs of patients afflicted with COPD, asthma, heart disease, diabetes, autism or an addiction can be monitored to check adherence to their medical and drug regimens. Parallax’s platform can also help doctors determine ways to improve patients’ conditions and accomplish those goals while reducing costs for both parties.

Information is retrieved real-time from patients and communicated to doctors/hospitals/health providers via a free cloud-based smartphone application or through biometric feedback devices like iwatches and FitBits. Data can also be captured off other devices like a simple weighing scale.

The platform is automated to integrate the data into electronic health records. At the heart of it is Parallax's patented technology that powers the platform, called Fotodigm, which allows for the exchange of audio, image and video data. It uses machine facial recognition to ensure security.  

The company says the platform is more than a monitoring system, it is about behavior modification and chronic disease management in patients as well. For example, the platform can track whether a patient is taking their drugs -- or not. If the patient, perhaps a diabetic, is avoiding or not adhering to his drug and lifestyle regimen, that can lead eventually to serious health problems.

The Parallax platform, which monitors blood and diet, can flag these issues and determine whether the patient is about to get into a serious medical event where the doctor needs to be notified immediately so he or she can intervene to help the patient.

The platform deploys software-as-a-service (SAaS) licensing through hospital and doctor groups and comes with actual hardware, the Desktop Analyzer. But the company is upgrading and expanding on that technology with the Sparks Mobile device, which is currently under development. It is a portable handheld diagnostics analyzer that tests loaded cartridges for biomarkers in blood samples or pathogens in urine in minutes instead of hours or days.

The company, which has six full-time employees, operates three subsidiaries - Parallax Behavioral Health handles the patient-monitoring platform; Parallax Diagnostics oversees diagnostics delivery with a US Food and Drug Administration-cleared analyzer and 25 FDA-cleared blood and urine tests; and Parallax Health Management provides outcomes-optimization software to promote behavior modification.

How is it doing:

Under the company’s growth plans, Parallax is seeking more collaborative deals as it reaches out to a wider universe of users for its telehealth platform. That means entering into vertical market licenses and technology-integration agreements in the fintech, human resources, and healthcare industries. 

In 2019, Parallax integrated its platform into the EZ Waiting Room's app platform, which offers entertainment and educational content to patients in physician waiting rooms and retail pharmacies. More than 330,000 doctors are now in the EZ Waiting Room network. 

Last September, the company also announced it was purchasing a 19% stake in Global Career Networks Inc, a provider of career solutions to one of the largest recruiter networks in the world with exposure to millions of recruiters and C-level executives. The move is a way to gain access to a large population of professionals - namely doctors and medical/healthcare providers - who may be interested in using Parallax’s platform. 

In an effort to help develop its technology, the company has inked a license agreement with HealthPointe Solutions, which uses artificial intelligence to determine healthcare solutions and services. This AI system will be woven into the Parallax Care Platform. 

Telehealth is a lucrative US market, which came in at a whopping $60 billion in 2018. It is a highly competitive market as well, and poaching or replicating a rival’s technology, even when it is patented, is a problem.

Parallax is looking into possible patent infringement in cases within the human diagnostics and behavioral healthcare markets, citing up to $500 million in potential damages.

But 2020 may prove to be the year that Parallax makes its biggest mark.

In March, as the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak began to spread from China into Europe and North America, the company stepped up its efforts to help health groups and professionals deal with the pandemic' effects while making a name for itself.

In response, Parallax now is developing a low-cost, rapid coronavirus test through its wholly-owned subsidiary Parallax Diagnostics.

The idea is to deliver the test in conjunction with the manufacturing and distribution of the company’s patented and FDA 510(K) approved VT-1000 Immunoassay diagnostic platform. The US Food and Drug Administration's 510(K) approval function is a pre-market clearance issued to medical device manufacturers.

Parallax has received preliminary approval for registration on the US government's System for Award Management (SAM), a key step that allows it to work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop its 15-minute detection test. The company is seeking a contract grant from the CDC's Small Business Group to help fund the test's development.

The company currently is accepting orders for its coronavirus Point-of-Care diagnostics kits for US medical practices, hospitals, nursing operations, emergency centers, and nursing homes. The company recently selected the antigens and antibodies that it will use as the markers in the test - which it expects to be ready for the public by summer. 

In the meantime, Parallax has undertaken several other moves to help the medical community during the pandemic.

Parallax is providing free downloads of its patented Good Health Outcomes Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) platform that enables comprehensive telehealth capabilities. And it has launched its remote patient monitoring platform via an app for free on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store. 

In addition, the company is providing hospitals globally immediate availability and access to Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) including, FDA-approved medical masks, protective sterile gowns, eye-protecting goggles, face shields, ventilators, and other medical grade equipment.

Most recently, subsidiary Parallax Diagnostics has started distributing vitamin D supplements to coronavirus medical and clinical services workers through a partnership with CURE Pharmaceutical Holding Corp, which produces CUREfilm D - an oral thin film supplement that delivers a dose of vitamin D that has been shown to reduce respiratory infections and boost immune activity. 

Inflection points:

  • Achieve break-even cash flow in the first half of 2020
  • Finish design and build of first-generation SPARKS Mobile device and submit to FDA for 510(k) clearance in the second quarter of 2020
  • Uplist from the OTCQB to either the NYSEAmerican or Nasdaq in the first half of 2020

What the boss says:

“The company’s heritage was built around diagnostics point-of-care and patient monitoring. Our patented technology provides real value to many people who are quarantined at home as well as the true heroes, the medical care professionals who are on the frontlines daily,” according to Parallax's CEO Paul Arena. 

Contact the author: patrick@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow him on Twitter @PatrickMGraham

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