The Aussie start-up taking on the US hospital system | That's Business with Alan Kohler

4DMedical has become one of the most closely watched healthcare companies on the ASX this year, as investors and hospitals alike pay attention to an Australian technology company trying to change how lung disease is detected and treated.

Andreas Fouras is the mechanical engineer behind it. He took technology originally developed to study airflow in wind tunnels and adapted it to measure airflow and blood flow inside the human body. Two decades later, 4DMedical is selling into some of America’s biggest hospitals, showing how Australian medical imaging technology can find a much bigger market offshore.

00:00 - Introduction
01:01 - How did wind tunnel technology become a medical breakthrough?
08:00 - Turning a research project into a company
09:05 - Why America's hospitals are buying Australian technology
10:07 - How 4DMedical makes money from every scan
14:09 - Is Australia making it too hard for health tech startups?
15:53 - New capital gains tax rules hurting innovation
16:42 – Profit margins: US$500 scan for a US$4 cost
18:28 - How big is the US healthcare market opportunity?
20:14 - Competitors
21:45 - Could Trump threaten an Australian company in the US?
23:09 - Large profit margins and ethics in healthcare
25:54 – The trend of Australian medical technology becoming a global success story
28:56 - What's next for Europe and international expansion

Alan Kohler speaks to Fouras about how the technology works, why US hospitals are paying up for it, the long road from research idea to commercial product, and the complexities of getting homegrown health technology into Australian hospitals.

Then there is the question of cost - and the ethics around big profit margins in a medical setting. And what does Fouras make of the new capital gains tax rules for startups trying to build the next wave of Australian growth?

CEO of 4DMedical Andreas Fouras joins Alan Kohler to unpack it all on That's Business with Alan Kohler.

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