Welch Allyn and EarlySense Partnership Generates Wide Range of Monitoring Solutions to Enhance Patient Safety

WALTHAM, Mass., Feb. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- EarlySense^®, the market leader in proactive patient care solutions, together with Welch Allyn, a leading medical diagnostic device company that delivers pragmatic innovation at the point of care, announced today an ongoing strategic partnership. Both companies have recently introduced technologically advanced products, including a wide range of vital signs solutions, to assist providers in avoiding adverse events.

Through the partnership, healthcare systems will have access to standalone safety-focused products by EarlySense and Welch Allyn, as well as integrated solutions that combine EarlySense continuous respiratory and heart rate monitoring capabilities with the Welch Allyn Connex^® Clinical Surveillance System (CSS).  The integration of EarlySense and Welch Allyn technology brings to market the first multi-parameter monitor with contact-free sensing, allowing providers to have options related to proven safety technology offered by EarlySense. Having these capabilities offers customers respiratory monitoring to detect patient deterioration early, as well as movement detection and turn reminders to help prevent pressure ulcers and reduce patient falls.  In addition, these solutions become a very compelling technological tool for the failure-to-rescue concerns that healthcare organizations constantly try to improve.

"We entered into our Strategic Partnership with Welch Allyn in early 2013, and during this past year we have worked very hard to prepare for this focused and capable product expansion by integrating EarlySense capabilities into the Welch Allyn Connex CSS solution," said Avner Halperin, CEO of EarlySense. "The result of this partnership is a fully integrated product that enables providers to offer a menu of technological solutions based on specific customer needs."

"Healthcare decision-makers face many challenges on multiple fronts," said Stephen F. Meyer, president & CEO of Welch Allyn. "They are tasked with improving patient care, increasing quality and avoiding adverse events—all while reducing costs.  The combined product offering from Welch Allyn and EarlySense covers a large spectrum of needs and provides solutions for more efficient, safer monitoring of patients. The integrated product with EarlySense inside the Welch Allyn Connex CSS is the only vital signs system with advanced contact-free safety capabilities to help reduce adverse events such as early detection of patient deterioration, falls and pressure ulcers."

About EarlySense
EarlySense has brought to market an innovative technology designed to advance proactive patient care and empower clinicians to achieve better patient outcomes.  Through early detection, the EarlySense system assists clinicians in identifying and preventing potential adverse events. It does so by providing motion rates and bed exit alarms, to help reduce falls and pressure ulcers, as well as surveillance of heart and respiratory rates to potentially detect patient deterioration.  The company's flagship product, the EarlySense System, is a continuous, contact-free, patient safety monitoring solution that monitors and documents a patient's vital signs and movement using a sensor that is placed underneath a bed mattress. There are no leads or cuffs to connect to the patient who has complete freedom of movement and is not burdened by any cumbersome attachments.  The system was designed to monitor patients on medical surgical floors who are usually monitored by nursing staff approximately once every four hours. The system is currently installed at hospitals and rehabilitation centers in the USA and Europe.  It is also commercially available in Canada. Hospital administrators report that patients, their families and staff feel more comfortable knowing the system is in place.  EarlySense Inc. is headquartered in Waltham, MA.  For more information about EarlySense, visit www.EarlySense.com.

About Welch Allyn
Welch Allyn helps reduce risk and improve patient safety, satisfaction and outcomes in a variety of clinical settings through a complete range of EMR-interfaced vital signs and cardiac monitoring diagnostic solutions, physical diagnosis instruments, and infection control products.  The company specializes in helping doctors, nurses and other frontline providers across the globe streamline workflow by developing innovative solutions that enable immediate access to accurate patient data.  A leading global healthcare company founded in 1915 and headquartered in Skaneateles Falls, N.Y. (USA), Welch Allyn is a family-owned business that employs over 2,600 employees in 26 different countries. More information about Welch Allyn and its complete line of connected products and solutions may be found at www.welchallyn.com.  Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

SOURCE EarlySense; Welch Allyn