Demetra: First off, what are you hearing and seeing
from your cardiologist clients?
Calvin: Well certainly what we have seen
over the last year in particular, of course,
with Covid is that
the vast majority of our healthcare professionals
or physician clients had a reduction in revenues
especially during the first several months of Covid.
This obviously had an impact
for cardiologists in that there was,
there was more hesitation by patients
to come in for procedures,
or the backlog of surgeries and those procedures,
and as a result we did see a reduction in revenues
from almost all of our clients.
What we have seen during this time of course too is that
there certainly has been an increase
in the number of virtual appointments
and certainly that has made up for some,
some of the change, the mix
in the way the patients are serviced.
But generally those visits that are done virtually,
also pay less than a normal in office visit.
So that has also had an impact on our clients.
So overall, that decline in revenue
has been, has also been exaggerated
because we've had an increase in costs.
So, we certainly have had an increase in the PPE cost,
staffing costs have generally increased.
We have had to cover physicians
with more people in the event of sickness,
that sort of thing too.
And so, we've really seen more of an emphasis on taking a look
at how these business are run.
And our clients are effectively looking at efficiencies
in running the businesses and taking an overall look at cost.