Blue Oak - Q1 2024 Investor Update

Dear investors and partners,

Q1 of this year has been a blast! We have made significant progress on tech development, product development, and marketing.

Let's dive into our key highlights!

1. Publication on Our Tech’s Accuracy

Doctors have one of the loudest voices in the healthcare and medical industry. Understandably, they repeatedly ask us for strong, academically rigorous test results before making any endorsement.

Hence, we know we need to secure a credible journal publication to convince them that our fall detection technology works with high accuracy.

That is why we are partnering with Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Associated Medical Sciences on this. We aim to submit our paper to PLOS (a Q1 journal in Science and Medicine with an Impact Factor of 3.7) in Q2 - Q3 this year. Pending review and approval, we estimate that we would get published between Q4 2024 and Q2 2025.

In addition to academic publication, we will be working with Intertek, an international product certification firm, to certify our accuracy and other required electronic standards as well.

Note that since we are NOT a medical product, we do not need FDA approval. None of our competitors required an FDA approval for their fall detection feature.

2. Product Launch Preparation

We plan to file all necessary patents prior to the tentative launch of our version 2 product in June. These will include design patent and layout of integrated circuit patent (mask protection), and maybe some trademarks.

Moreover, as we overcome technical challenges to improve our fall detection capability (increasing coverage area, overcoming various types of ambient noise, etc.) and add new features (SIM card-enabled connectivity, footstep analysis to track ADL, etc.), our IP portfolio is constantly growing.

Hence, we are currently working with an experienced US patent attorney and former USPTO patent examiner, Eliza Stefaniw, RTTP, to refine our intellectual property strategy.

3. Research on Government Copayment Scheme & Biz Dev

Copayment scheme is a question frequently asked by keen investors. For our initial launch in Thailand, the payers will be the caring families (including the seniors themselves, in some cases). Here is what we have found out so far about the government copayment schemes in some of the markets.

3.1. Thailand

While we do not need a government copayment scheme for our initial phase, we are preparing for subsequent expansion by investigating how to get our device listed under the 3 major medical care schemes in Thailand: Universal Coverage (UCS), Social Security Scheme (SSS), and Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSMBS). Getting into one will unlock our expansion in subsequent phases.

3.2. Singapore

The Housing Development Board (who provided 80% of the housing for Singapore residents) is funding the installation of fall detection devices for seniors to age in place and is constantly testing out new technologies. There are also social service agencies like Lions Befrienders who are getting subsidies from the Agency of Integrated Care (AIC).

I have quickly met with Karen Wee, the Executive Director of Lion Befrienders, and she is keen to initiate the pilot project together in Singapore once our version 2 product is launched.

The reason she is keen? She told me she has NOT seen anyone using vibration signals before, and hence is interested in having the best-in-class tech being installed in her ecosystem.

3.3. Australia

During my visit to Melbourne in December last year, I was lucky to have met Wayne Merry, a veteran in Australia Healthcare and Medical Ecosystem who told me all about the ecosystem and the key players there.

We are analyzing how we could fit into the government-funded Coming of Home Support Program (around 800,000 seniors under this scheme) and the more-premium Home Care Packages (around 100,000 seniors). Most likely, we will be partnering with qualified nursing care agencies like Mable.

3.4. USA

Instead of navigating the complex subsidy programs in our most important market ourselves, we try to work with experienced local players. We are already in confidentiality-protected talk with SafeinHome, a telecare provider who works with State Medicaid programs to provide care for 2,000+ homes and growing.

While the US market is definitely for the future and not now, launching there requires careful multiple quarters’ worth of planning and preparation. Hence, we are starting now.

4. Moving to Model-Based Development

One of the most laborious steps of our work so far is on low-level programming for our hardware development. Each iteration is time consuming and error-prone, and tracking changes is painstaking.

We recently made a move to using MATLAB’s Simulink in lieu of the labor work. A premium paid subscription software, the Simulink offers a block-diagram style, model-based environment that allows us to design programs, simulate their performance in target hardware, and test deployments without writing low-level codes ourselves.

We can now iterate faster – be it fixing bugs, optimizing existing systems, or adding new features – going forward. Oh, and we will be able to scale the team faster now with a much reduced need for Embedded System Engineers.

5. Secret Sauce: Greater Fall Detection Coverage!

The coverage of our smart fall detection device will always depend on the building structures and how well they transmit vibration signals.

We have explored and come up with both mechanical and electronic ways to boost our signal reception strength. However, that tends to trade off with over-saturations when falls occur too close, unless we find a way to expand the signal processing range accordingly. Upgrading to a high-end signal processing unit could do, but would triple our hardware costs.

Our answer to this challenge? An automatic signal gain control (ASGC) system.

This moderating system boosts weaker signals from distant falls and reduces stronger signals from nearby falls, ensuring accurate detection across larger areas without overwhelming the system. ASGC helps maintain high accuracy and makes deploying our device in larger spaces more cost-effective.

We have been researching our proprietary ASGC for about 2 quarters now. Once it is thoroughly-tested, it will be integrated into our future versions. We are also exploring the best way to protect this precious piece of intellectual property.

That’s it. Let me know if you have any questions or advice. We are always open to ideas and discussion.

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Best regards,
Pat Lee
CEO and Cofounder
Blue Oak Co., Ltd.
(Vibration-Based Fall Monitoring Deep Tech)
www.blueoaksolution.com
+66-82-383-9955 (WhatsApp / LINE)