Life Recovery Systems Awarded Contract With Premier for Patient Temperature Management

KINNELON, N.J., Sept. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Life Recovery Systems announced today that it has been awarded a new three-year agreement by Premier Purchasing Partners, LP, the group purchasing unit of the Premier healthcare alliance, that makes the ThermoSuit System available by contract to its more than 75,000 healthcare member facilities. After hearing of this award, LRS's first GPO contract, Robert Neary, LRS Director of Marketing commented, "We are very gratified that Premier's Nursing Committee has recognized the value of the ThermoSuit System's unique ability to cool patients to therapeutic temperature in minutes rather than hours using a totally non-invasive procedure. This decision is a great vote of confidence in our company."

The new Life Recovery Systems contract for Patient Temperature Management Products and Accessories runs from July 1, 2011 until June 30, 2014. Among Premier members already using the ThermoSuit System are New York Beth Israel Hospital in New York City NY. Said Dr. Pierre Kory, Beth Israel's Director of Simulation and Hypothermia Training, "Fast… Synchronizes well with an emergent trip to the Cath. Lab; allows us to cool while the Cath. Lab is getting ready." Lafayette General Hospital in Lafayette LA, another Premier member hospital has been using the ThermoSuit System since 2010. Elizabeth Weber, ICU Clinical Educator at Lafayette General commented, "The ThermoSuit System is fast and easy to use and we have had a number of positive outcomes with minimal or no neurological impairment."

The ThermoSuit System uses direct liquid contact with the patient to reduce core body temperature. A thin film of ice water is circulated over the patient's body until the temperature reaches a pre-set limit, at which point the water is automatically removed from the suit. The system is easily set up by two nurses or techs in about 7 minutes and cools to therapeutic temperature of 33 degrees C in 20 to 30 minutes. The patient is then removed from the suit and remains cold for hours without the need for further maintenance, allowing unencumbered access for imaging or treatment in the Cath. Lab.

Patients can also be cooled in remote satellite hospitals and shipped cool to larger hospitals with specialized cardiac care facilities. After this, further maintenance and rewarming can be accomplished using a regular cooling blanket.

Said LRS's Vice President of R&D and co-inventor of the ThermoSuit System Dr. Robert Schock, "The ThermoSuit System has been designed to harness the speed and efficiency of ice water immersion in a medical device which uses a small volume of water and is safe and easy to use in a medical facility."

Dr. Robert Freedman, President & CEO, co-founder of Life Recovery Systems and a practicing Interventional Cardiologist in Alexandria LA added, "I have treated over 50 patients in my facility using the ThermoSuit System with remarkably positive results."

About Life Recovery Systems

Founded in 2003, Life Recovery Systems focuses on ground breaking, innovative medical devices for the emergency medical care market. Its mission is to save and preserve the quality of lives. Its first product, the ThermoSuit System, was developed with the assistance of NIH funding to provide physicians and nurses with a safe, convenient, and extremely rapid method for cooling patients. It has received FDA 510(k) clearance for "temperature reduction in patients where clinically indicated, e.g. in hyperthermic patients." It won a Medical Design Excellence Award in 2009, and multicenter clinical results were published in the Journal Resuscitation in 2010 [1]. Headquartered in Kinnelon, NJ, Life Recovery Systems also has offices in Alexandria LA. http://www.life-recovery.com.

About the Premier Healthcare Alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Recipient

Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals and 75,000-plus other healthcare sites using the power of collaboration to lead the transformation to high quality, cost-effective care. Owned by hospitals, health systems and other providers, Premier maintains the nation's most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information and operates a leading healthcare purchasing network. A world leader in helping deliver measurable improvements in care, Premier has worked with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has an office in Washington. http://www.premierinc.com.

[1] Howes D, Ohley W, Dorian P, Klock JC, Freedman R, Schock R, Krizanac D, Holzer M, "Rapid Induction of Therapeutic Hypothermia using Convective-Immersion Surface Cooling: Safety, Efficacy, and Outcomes", Resuscitation 2010 Vol. 81, no .4, 388-392.

Contact: Robert B. Schock
[email protected]
Phone: 973-283-2800

SOURCE Life Recovery Systems