Carolyn Jensen, Managing Director, Cardio Jenic

The prevalence of cardiovascular conditions is significantly increasing across the world. In Australia, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of death. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) National Mortality Database, cardiovascular disease was the underlying cause of 41,800 deaths in 2018. As CVD continues to impose a heavy burden on Australians in terms of illness, disability, and premature death, there is an increasing need for innovative solutions that would aid the diagnosis and treatment of these ailments.

When Carolyn Jensen, a Senior Leader of a healthcare company was discussing this issue with cardiologists, she realized that there are validated innovative solutions available overseas that could support Australian clinicians in providing better cardiac care to the Australian community. During the conversation, the cardiologists would often describe the diagnostic problems faced by them and lament that several innovative solutions were available overseas that hadn’t been brought to the Australian market. This was mostly because the regulatory system was unknown and the distance was too great to attempt to overcome the market barriers. Thus, Carolyn and her partner Greg Jensen, decided to bridge this gap, and hence, Cardio-Jenic Pty Ltd was born in 2016to bring orphan products to the Australian market that would provide the innovation needed to better the healthcare system.

Driven by their motto— “Innovation, not iteration in cardiology,” the pioneering company focuses on introducing groundbreaking solutions to the cardiology market in Australia through international collaborations across Europe and the USA.

Delivering Exemplary Services

Cardio-Jenic collaborates with innovative suppliers across the globe with rich histories of developing state-of-the-art medical technology to offer a wide array of innovative solutions to the Australian Healthcare environment. Recently, partnering with Freeland Systems, it has brought cPAC, feature-rich PACS to the Australian market to answer the problem of providing a cardiac diagnostic service over multiple locations.

“Usually complex networking and Virtual Private Networks need to be established before downloading large files that take time before a diagnosis can be provided remotely. cPac allows users to sign in from any browser and with built-in encryption, safely view, measure, and report cardiac studies from wherever the cardiologist finds themselves in the world,” elucidates Carolyn.

New technology may also aim to disrupt current practice and this is true of the Cardio-Jenic partnership with award-winning Heart Sciences from Texas, and the MyoVista® Wavelet ECG (wavECGTM). This innovative technology aims to bridge the “diagnostic gap” in cardiac care by developing new low-cost effective solutions that assist in identifying at-risk, and often asymptomatic patients in the early stages of heart disease rather than reliance on more expensive imaging solutions.

Cardio-Jenic also provides preeminent consulting services to start-ups or small medical device companies that have limited resources to bring their outstanding technology to markets like Australia and Asia. The highly experienced professionals at Cardio-Jenic assist these companies in better understanding the market, and their position within it and make recommendations to move forward with a greater likelihood of success. The company also helps startups in developing a marketing and business plan to connect with the best partner in Australia.

Evolving and Overcoming Challenges

Today, Cardio-Jenic has come a long way since its inception with its value-added service and innovative solutions. But even with its assets and expertise, the company had to overcome several hurdles to reach where it is today. Initially, overcoming the objection of trying something new with a new player in the market was quite challenging for the company.

“Whenever starting a new company, you first need to break the mold with people that have ‘always done it this way’. They buy from the same companies because they are known to them and use the same technologies because they trust them,” asserts Carolyn.

Bringing True Value to Healthcare Industry

One of the key aspects that make Cardio-Jenic stand out in the market is its unwavering commitment to deliver value-added service. Before bringing any product to market, the company performs a full evaluation to assess if the product meets the following 4 key criteria.

• Is the product is truly innovative or is it a technology that already exists and freely available through other companies?
• Does the product solve a problem that is critical in the diagnostic cardiology market?
• Does the product allow access to greater amounts of information than was previously available that will improve diagnostic speed and accuracy?
• Are they able to provide their gold standard service with this offering?

“If it’s just a ‘cool toy’ then it might look good, but our healthcare system cannot afford money to be spent if it does not solve a real issue, affirms Carolyn. Once the product meets all these standards, it moves forward with fuller testing for suitability and usability in the marketplace.

Stepping into the Future

Forging ahead, Cardio-Jenic aims to continue expanding its product portfolio to meet the needs of a market where the cardiovascular disease remains the number 1 killer of Australian people. The pioneering company also intends to further expand its consulting and support offerings while staying at the forefront of innovative technology with solutions identified proactively.

“We don’t just sell products, but look to be part of the problem identification, solution proposal, and overall improvement of cardiology delivery. We can do this by consulting locally and internationally with local health providers, local companies, and international developers and manufacturers,” concludes Carolyn.