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This year we advanced from being a potent candidate to becoming a leading player through the release of our first CE-marked digital pathology product, confirming our determination to secure a top position within the field. The timing of our entry on an immature, but very promising market, in conjunction with a global pandemic, was of course not ideal in the short perspective. However, we have established a network of users and potential customers over the course of quite a few years, allowing us to drive progress and complete several remote installations despite the limitations on physical meetings.
In the fourth quarter, we focused on commencing clinical evaluations at the reference sites where we installed INIFY Prostate Screening, our new digital support tool developed to aid the pathologist in the assessment of digitalized prostate biopsy samples. We have continued contract discussions with additional laboratories at the forefront of digitalization, to broaden our market footprint and build a solid foundation on which to grow. As recently announced, the latest center is the pathology department at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, serving as a reference center for the region. However, we experienced that the process for installs and evaluation of INIFY has been slowed with remote communication as the only option. Our R&D activities continued, with a focus on increased functionality in our prostate product as well as research within additional cancer types known to cause the heaviest workloads for pathologists.
Digital pathology is a growing market with obvious needs. As population growth and longer life expectancy cause disease rates to rise, pathologists around the world face an ever-increasing burden. In dealing with present and future healthcare challenges, digitalization – and equipping healthcare professionals with powerful software tools – will be a key part of the solution, serving all major stakeholders, from patients to hospital management.

 Fourth-quarter sales were higher than those of the third quarter, which we cautiously regard as a continued positive sign of recovery, even if sales in all regions are on a lower level compared with the corresponding quarter of 2019. The sales drop can partly be attributed to normal quarterly variations, but is mainly related to the present situation. Our ultrasound business is slowly climbing, but remains lower than the previous year. Rivent, our 7th product generation in ultrasound, was released in May; it attracted great market attention with its ability to pair exceptional image quality with extraordinary sharpness.
While our X-ray business decreased compared to the same quarter of 2019, the entire year shows a substantial growth within this product segment, largely driven by our latest AI-powered product line Altumira.
Several new contracts – including a business expansion with one of our global key customers in ultrasound – were signed in the quarter. This generated some immediate revenues, but more importantly it further reinforced our strong market position and provided new growth opportunities. In addition, we signed a research agreement with a partner aiming to push the boundaries within ultrasound image quality even further.
Thanks to a very strong start, total sales for 2020 end on par with our record year 2019 – a great achievement under present circumstances. During the year, we managed to sign new contracts while further developing existing customer relationships and business. Most of our activities, including customer meetings, support and exhibitions, have been carried out remotely on digital platforms. Here, all parties have shown impressive determination, with extensive efforts to continue to drive projects and business.

The situation was unchanged in the last quarter of 2020. We continuously enhance our tools for remote communication and support to our customers. While the near future is still unpredictable, we are hopeful that 2021 will offer a gradual return to an environment where both digital and physical meetings and interactions are normal options. We certainly look forward to meeting our customers and partners face to face as soon as possible.

Looking at the entire 2020, I'm proud and thankful for what we have achieved. We have delivered new products, one of which is our market entry product within digital pathology, where we are one of the frontrunners worldwide. The other pushes image quality within ultrasound to a new level, confirming our outstanding skills, knowledge and experience within medical image processing. Precautionary measures taken at the beginning of the pandemic, combined with a strong sales performance, result in strengthened year-end financials. Although our growth rate is lower than anticipated pre-corona, I look forward with optimism, confident that efficient solutions for image-based applications and decision support tools within healthcare are more relevant than ever.

ContextVision is a medical technology software company specialized in image analysis and artificial intelligence. As the global market leader within image enhancement, we are a trusted partner to leading manufacturers of ultrasound, X-ray and MRI equipment around the world.

Our expertise is to develop powerful software products, based on proprietary technology and artificial intelligence for image-based applications. Our cutting-edge technology helps clinicians accurately interpret medical images, a crucial foundation for better diagnosis and treatment.

ContextVision is now entering the fast-growing digital pathology market. We are re-investing significantly in our product portfolio of decision support tools and we are dedicated to becoming a leading resource for pathologists to radically develop cancer diagnosis and improve patient care.

The company, established in 1983, is based in Sweden with local representation in the U.S., Japan, China and Korea. ContextVision is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker COV.