Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Receives ECRI Institute Award for Innovative Patient Monitoring Project Using Masimo SET Pulse Oximetry and Masimo Patient SafetyNet(TM)

IRVINE, Calif., March 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Masimo (Nasdaq: MASI), the inventor of Pulse CO-Oximetry™ and Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry, is pleased to report that Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (Lebanon, New Hampshire) has received the 4th Annual ECRI Institute Health Devices Achievement Award yesterday for an innovative patient monitoring project that uses its Masimo SET pulse oximetry and Masimo Patient SafetyNet remote monitoring and clinician notification system.  The award-winning project enabled clinicians to significantly improve post-surgical patient outcomes and reduce hospital costs by $817,000 in its first year.(1)  In their announcement of the award, the ECRI Institute honored Dartmouth-Hitchcock for "the most exceptional example of an initiative undertaken by an ECRI Institute member to improve patient safety, reduce costs, or otherwise facilitate better strategic management of health technology."  ECRI Institute's Vice President of Health Technology Evaluation and Safety, Jim Keller, presented the award this morning to Jeanne Avery, Senior Clinical Quality Specialist, and Ken Lee, Clinical Manager, Biomedical Engineering, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock.

"We are very proud of this award and the accomplishments and environment of care that it represents," stated George Blike, M.D., Quality and Patient Safety Officer, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. "Creating excellence in patient care today requires both a high-tech and high-touch approach.  We believe that together, Masimo's innovative technologies and our implementation truly made a difference, which is incredibly rewarding for everyone involved."

Joe Kiani, Chairman and CEO of Masimo, stated, "We are delighted to see the ECRI Institute recognize Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center for their excellence in implementing and managing health technology to drive improved patient outcomes, safety, and cost savings.  Researchers and clinicians at Dartmouth-Hitchcock should all be congratulated for their visionary work, its potential to advance the standard and quality of care, and its impact on healthcare for all patients.  They prove that great technology in the hands of caring clinicians can make a huge difference in not only the lives of patients, but in lowering the cost of healthcare."

ECRI Institute, an independent nonprofit that researches the best approaches to improving patient care, selected Dartmouth-Hitchcock for excellence in health technology management based on their initiative to decrease failure to rescue events—instances of severe patient harm (such as death or disability) that occur because a serious deterioration in the patient's condition is not detected in time.  Dartmouth-Hitchcock's winning healthcare initiative, "A Multidisciplinary Approach to Improving Patient Safety in the Adult Medical/Surgical Population through Earlier Detection of Patient Deterioration Using Surveillance Monitoring," leverages a new application of pulse oximetry—continuously monitoring post-surgical patients on the general floor from admission to discharge—using a combination of advanced medical technologies—Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry with Masimo SET and automatic clinician notification with Masimo Patient SafetyNet.  The implementation resulted in 65% fewer rescue events and 48% fewer ICU transfers, which freed up 135 ICU-days annually for more critically-ill patients.(2)

Dartmouth-Hitchcock's award-winning project is featured in the March 2010 issue of Health Devices, available at:  https://www.ecri.org/Products/Pages/Health_Devices_Journals.aspx.

(1) J.A. Morgan, A.H. Taenzer, S.P. McGrath, G.T. Blike.  Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. "Cost-effectiveness of Patient Surveillance Systems."  Presentation S-249, Monday, March 22, 2010, 9-10:30 a.m.; International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS), Honolulu, Hawaii. Available online at:  http://www.abstractsonline.com/Plan/ViewAbstract.aspx?mID=2481&sKey=00f42012-e254-4e88-9828-f8cc6e370103&cKey=9c549b96-143a-4aae-a1e3-370031a85e57&mKey=%7bBA0F4D4C-6673-49B4-9438-7D745CEA2C01%7d

(2) Taenzer, Andreas H.; Pyke, Joshua B.; McGrath, Susan P.; Blike, George T. "Impact of Pulse Oximetry Surveillance on Rescue Events and Intensive Care Unit Transfers: A Before-and-After Concurrence Study." Anesthesiology, February 2010, Vol. 112, Issue 2.  Available online at:  http://journals.lww.com/anesthesiology/Abstract/publishahead/Impact_of_Pulse_Oximetry_Surveillance_on_Rescue.99692.aspx

About Masimo

Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) develops innovative monitoring technologies that significantly improve patient care—helping solve "unsolvable" problems.  In 1995, the company debuted Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry, known as Masimo SET®, which virtually eliminated false alarms and increased pulse oximetry's ability to detect life-threatening events.  More than 100 independent and objective studies demonstrate Masimo SET provides the most reliable SpO2 and pulse rate measurements even under the most challenging clinical conditions, including patient motion and low peripheral perfusion.  In 2005, Masimo introduced Masimo Rainbow SET® Pulse CO-OximetryTM, allowing noninvasive and continuous monitoring of blood constituents that previously required invasive procedures, including total hemoglobin (SpHbTM), oxygen content (SpOCTM), carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO®), methemoglobin (SpMet®), and PVI®, in addition to SpO2, pulse rate, and perfusion index (PI).  In 2009, Masimo introduced Masimo Rainbow SET® Acoustic MonitoringTM, the first-ever noninvasive and continuous monitoring of acoustic respiration rate (RRa).  Masimo's Rainbow platform offers a breakthrough in patient safety by helping clinicians detect life-threatening conditions and helping guide treatment options.  Founded in 1989, Masimo has the mission of "Improving Patient Outcomes and Reducing Cost of Care by Taking Noninvasive Monitoring to New Sites and Applications." Additional information about Masimo and its products may be found at www.masimo.com.

About ECRI Institute

ECRI Institute, a nonprofit organization, dedicates itself to bringing the discipline of applied scientific research to healthcare to discover which medical procedures, devices, drugs, and processes are best to enable improved patient care.  As pioneers in this science for 40 years, ECRI Institute marries experience and independence with the objectivity of evidence-based research. ECRI Institute is designated a Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization and an Evidence-based Practice by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. ECRI Institute PSO is listed as a federally certified Patient Safety Organization by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources. For more information, visit https://www.ecri.org.

About Dartmouth Hitchcock

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) is New Hampshire's only academic medical center. Internationally renowned and nationally ranked, DHMC serves a population of 1.5 million in Vermont and New Hampshire. DHMC integrates high-quality patient care, advanced medical education, and translational research to provide a full spectrum of health care. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center includes Norris Cotton Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute designated Comprehensive Care Center, and is home to the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth. The center also includes Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital (396-bed teaching hospital), the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic, Veterans Affairs Regional Medical and Office Center, and Dartmouth Medical School.  For more information on Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, visit www.dhmc.org.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements as defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, in connection with the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations about future events affecting us and are subject to risks and uncertainties, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control and could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in our forward-looking statements as a result of various risk factors, including, but not limited to: risks related to our assumptions regarding the repeatability of clinical and financial results, risks related to our assumptions that automatic clinician notifications provided by Masimo Patient SafetyNet will enable timely rescue, risks related to our belief that continuous monitoring with Masimo SET pulse oximetry will detect physiological abnormalities and potentially life-threatening conditions in real-time for all patients, and risks related to our assumptions regarding the system's ability to deliver clinical improvement over alternative patient monitoring/assessment methods, decrease rescue events and ICU transfers, and improve both patient safety and outcomes, as well as other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our most recent reports  filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), which may be obtained for free at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we do not know whether our expectations will prove correct. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today's date. We do not undertake any obligation to update, amend or clarify these forward-looking statements or the "Risk Factors" contained in our most recent reports filed with the SEC, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under the applicable securities laws.

Masimo, SET, Signal Extraction Technology, Improving Outcomes and Reducing Cost of Care by Taking Noninvasive Monitoring to New Sites and Applications, Rainbow, SpHb, SpOC, SpCO, SpMet, PVI, RRa, Radical-7, Rad-87, Rad-57,Rad-9, Rad-8, Rad-5,Pulse CO-Oximetry and Pulse CO-Oximeter are trademarks or registered trademarks of Masimo Corporation.

SOURCE Masimo