Medical Technology Leaders at Inaugural Patient Safety Science and Technology Summit Sign Pledges to Make Patient Data Available to Reduce Preventable Deaths

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif., Jan. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --The inaugural Patient Safety Science & Technology Summit made history when for the first time nine leading medical device companies publicly pledged to make their devices interoperable. The groundbreaking pledges will make patient data collected and displayed on their devices accessible for patients and clinicians – launching a movement designed to reverse the rising tide of preventable patient deaths at U.S. hospitals.

Cercacor, Cerner, Drager, GE Healthcare Systems, Masimo, Smiths Medical, Sonosite, Surgicount, and Zoll each announced pledges of interoperability and patient data accessibility during the Patient Safety Science & Technology Summit. The Summit attracted hundreds of prominent doctors, hospital administrators, device makers and patient advocates from across the world, and challenged healthcare leaders to pledge to take actionable, accountable measures toward zero preventable patient deaths.

When first identified more than 10 years ago in the Institute of Medicine report "To Err Is Human," nearly 100,000 hospital patients were dying unnecessarily each year. The hospital death toll has doubled since then, with more than 200,000 preventable patient deaths annually. ^1,2 Alarmed, Joe Kiani, founder and Chairman of the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation & Competition in Healthcare, and the CEO of medical device company Masimo, created the Patient Safety Science & Technology Summit to bring visionary minds together to solve  the  patient safety problems we collectively face by connecting people, ideas and technologies.

"My fellow medtech CEOs have taken patient safety to heart in a way that this industry has never done before," Kiani said. "I am proud to be standing with these eight other pioneers as we break down the walls of data ownership to empower patients and clinicians with device interoperability, information, and technology integration that will save lives and reduce costs. As other medical technology leaders become aware of what we have begun to accomplish, we look forward to announcing more companies committed to the same objective."

Peter Provonost, Sr. Vice President for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine and Director of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, applauded the medical device companies for making public pledges.

"Thanks to these courageous leaders who have made public pledges, patients around the globe will be safer," Pronovost said. "These companies are blazing a trail in the name of patient safety and dignity – a move that will elevate their standing in the medical community as well as the market."

Summary of Pledges:

Drager
I pledge, on behalf of myself and my company, to do what we can to interface and share patient health information across different devices and platforms to help provide comprehensive patient health information to caregivers to assist them in making treatment decisions. This is my pledge to making a better healthcare system.

Stefan Drager, CEO and Chairman, Drager

GE Healthcare
We pledge to improve patient safety by allowing medical industry companies and healthcare providers to access patient data by maintaining open interfaces that enable third party devices and systems to communicate with GE Healthcare patient monitors, therapy devices and clinical information systems. I am personally encouraged to see the partnership and mutual commitment of the medical industry and clinical providers to do the right thing for patients, everywhere. This is GE Healthcare's pledge and we invite our hospital providers and industry partners to join in the pursuit of zero preventable deaths.

Tom Gentile, President & CEO, Healthcare Systems
Senior Vice President, GE Healthcare

Cerner
I pledge, on behalf of myself and my company, to make the clinical data stored in my company's products, subject to all applicable privacy laws, available to anyone or any entity that wants to use it to improve patient care. And I expect to be held accountable for this pledge by others in the industry.

Paul N. Gorup, Co-Founder & Chief of Innovation, Cerner

Zoll
I pledge, on behalf of myself and my company, to make the physiological parameters displayed by my company's products, subject to all applicable privacy laws, available to anyone or any entity that wants to use it to improve patient care. And I expect to be held accountable for this pledge by others in the industry.

Richard A. Packer, CEO Zoll Medical

Masimo
I pledge, on behalf of myself and my company, to make the physiological parameters displayed by my company's products, subject to all applicable privacy laws, available to anyone or any entity that wants to use it to improve patient care. And I expect to be held accountable for this pledge by others in the industry.

Joe Kiani, Founder, Chairman & CEO Masimo Corporation

Smiths Medical
I pledge on behalf of myself and my company to make the information available from my company's products, subject to all applicable privacy laws, available to others in the industry for their use to help make a better healthcare system.

Srini Seshadri, President, Smiths Medical

Cercacor
I pledge, on behalf of my company, to make the physiological parameters displayed by my company's products, subject to all applicable privacy laws, available to anyone or any entity that wants to use it to improve patient care. And I expect to be held accountable for this pledge by others in the industry.

Marcelo Lamego, Chief Technology Officer

SonoSite
I pledge, on behalf of myself and my company, to make the physiological parameters displayed by my company's products, subject to all applicable privacy laws, available to anyone or any entity that wants to use it to improve patient care. And I expect to be held accountable for this pledge by others in the industry.

Kevin Goodwin, President & CEO, SonoSite Inc.

SurgiCount Medical, Inc.
I pledge, on behalf of myself and my company, to make the surgical sponge count summary information displayed by my company's handheld mobile computers, subject to all applicable privacy laws, available to anyone or any entity that wants to use it to improve patient care. And I expect to be held accountable for this pledge by others in the industry.

Brian Stewart, President & CEO, SurgiCount Medical, Inc.

About the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare
Committed to advancing positive change for the benefit of patients, clinicians, hospitals and payers everywhere. the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation, and Competition in Healthcare is a U.S.-based, private charitable foundation that is focused on improving patient care, preserving patient dignity and reducing cost of care, through philanthropic programs and research initiatives that foster an environment of aligned incentives, highest level of ethics for those who take part in the care of patients, and healthy and honest competition. The Masimo Foundation also helps create pathways for new lifesaving discoveries and inventions, and improve access to cost-effective, innovative healthcare solutions. The Foundation's emphasis is on transformative projects that seek to truly enhance patient safety and outcomes; helping to forge a world free of sickness, disease and inhumanity. Masimo Foundation supports third-party research, development initiatives, and clinical studies designed to expand the healthcare industry's ability to provide better and more cost-effective solutions and protocols for healthcare delivery. The Foundation also gives special attention to causes whose goals are ethical - focused on doing the right things for the right reasons - and designed to foster innovation and create healthy competition, which the Foundation believes is the ultimate answer to improving care, improving access to care, and lowering healthcare costs in the United States and around the world. To learn more about the Masimo Foundation, visit www.masimofoundation.com.

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 results 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 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.

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Media Contacts:
Mike Drummond
Masimo Corporation
Phone: (949) 297-7434
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Masimo Corporation