Founder and President of CardioSource Medical Equipment, Inc. is an American expat, Gerald L. White. One of his cornerstones of a successful strategic approach to growth is introducing a focused medical education campaign to fill gaps in the way at-risk patients are diagnosed and managed, to align proven evidenced-based approaches from first world countries.
Mr. White and his wife, Aliona T. White currently reside in Metro Manila with their 3 children, all of whom are in school locally; Aliona serves as the Business Development Manager and a key board member.
Mr. White honed his leadership skills and business acumen as a United States Marine Corps Officer, and medical device sales and pharmaceuticals. He worked his way through the ranks of pharmaceuticals through various positions (sales; HMO and government accounts; training; marketing; and various sales leadership positions and departments) to fully understand the integrated healthcare system (hospitals; clinics; physician practices; patient matters; pharmacy role; and insurance/HMO roles and partnering). After more than 16 years in the medical device and pharmaceutical corporate roles, he decided to become an entrepreneur and start a medical device business internationally.
CardioSource Medical Equipment, Inc. was started to support the growing cardiovascular franchise of another company that paved the way for Mr. White to learn his business acumen in the Philippines. He started that company, Edge Medical Devices and Equipment, Inc. in November of 2008, selling implantable cardiac devices.
Recognizing that the market for diagnostics was much bigger and under served, especially with the epidemic level of hypertension (high blood pressure) in the Philippines, CardioSource Medical began offering 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABPM) monitors and 24-hour holter monitors. This venture began in April of 2014 to have a diagnostic distribution company.
The market approach used allowed for early and fast adoption of CardioSource Medical’s products with its customers without costing them any money upfront. As a result, several hundred patients monthly are being properly tested for the life threatening and altering disease of hypertension, and/or arrhythmias.
The CardioSource Medical leadership team gathered the support of one of the largest HMOs in the country before launching their promotional efforts. Regular meetings with the CEO of this HMO, and President of a large chain of clinics, helped further the relationship and assurance of an aligned approach to saving lives and unnecessary healthcare expenses.
The HMO’s senior leaders realize that saving money on costly complications associated with chronic diseases like hypertension is smart business for them, employers, and patients. Diagnosing and providing a prevention and wellness approach to managing these types of diseases is a key cornerstone to saving healthcare expenditures for all stakeholders.
Employers recognize that it is too costly to have an unhealthy population of employees who often miss too many days of work, and cost the organization directly and indirectly. The BPO industry has taken a very pro-active approach to addressing this issue by providing an avenue for their employees to have annual and/or executive checkups annually.
As a result of the growth in 24-hour ABPM and holter business, CardioSource Medical has added 2D echo (ultrasound), stress echo (with treadmill) to the portfolio, and will add spirometers (lung test) in January of 2017. Pharmaceutical products have also recently been added to augment the diagnostic growth.
Opportunities became available to add therapeutic products to manage the chronic diseases of hypertension, diabetes, and COPD, matching the strategic focus of the company. One key strategic focus is to provide solutions for identifying and managing at-risk patients for complications associated with the 3 chronic diseases CardioSource’s products diagnose, and/or manage. Therefore, adding pharmaceuticals will properly address the need for therapeutic management and intervention to control the cost of complications.