Uludag University Hospital Installs Masimo Noninvasive rainbow® Technology to Improve Patient Assessments and Speed Clinical Decisions

BURSA, Turkey and IRVINE, Calif., May 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) and Uludag University Hospital, one of the top educational healthcare facilities in all of Turkey, announce that Uludag has added Masimo SpHb^® – a breakthrough technology that allows clinicians to noninvasively and continuously monitor hemoglobin blood levels.

The use of SpHb is part of Uludag's standardization to Masimo SET^® Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion™ pulse oximetry, clinically shown to virtually eliminate false alarms¹ and help clinicians better detect life-threatening events.² This conversion represents Masimo's largest whole-house technology installation in Turkey to date.

Uludag University Hospital, with 880 beds and only one of two hospitals in the country to have Joint Commission International accreditation, is now leveraging Masimo SpHb in its operating rooms. SpHb has been clinically shown to reduce risky and unnecessary blood transfusions and speeds time to transfuse when indicated, while dramatically reducing costs.³

"We use the Masimo Radical-7 Pulse CO-Oximeter with SpHb primarily for complex neurosurgeries of pediatric patients such as brain tumors and craniosynostosis," said Dr. Gulsen Korfali, a professor and Chairman of Anesthesiology and Reanimation at Uludag University. "We have a particular need to track hemoglobin levels on a continuous basis and stay noninvasive on the most vulnerable patient population – children."

"Masimo SET also has tremendously reduced our sensor consumption because they last longer," Dr. Korfali added. "We used to discard sensors every day. Now we can use a sensor for up to five days. We also have almost no false alarms and a higher ability to detect desaturations with Masimo SET in our critical care areas."

Hemoglobin levels are used as a primary indicator for red blood cell (RBC) transfusion, but conventional laboratory measurements are only available intermittently and results can be delayed in the period between blood draw and laboratory analysis. This time gap of information can lead to sub-optimal transfusion decisions.⁴ RBC transfusion overuse as well as delayed RBC transfusion can increase patient risk and cost of care. Multiple observational studies have shown that patients receiving RBC transfusions have an 88% higher mortality, 69% higher infection rate, and 250% higher rate of acute respiratory distress syndrome.⁵

SpHb monitoring provides real-time directional trends in hemoglobin, such as indicating stable hemoglobin when it may be perceived to be dropping, and rising hemoglobin when it may be perceived to not be rising fast enough. A recent study from Cairo University in Egypt also showed that once clinicians determined a transfusion was needed, they were able to initiate transfusions 82% faster – in about 9 minutes, compared to about 50 minutes for patients not being monitored by SpHb.³ That same study also showed SpHb can help clinicians reduce unnecessary and risky RBC transfusions, which can improve patient outcomes while dramatically lowering the cost of care.

Joe Kiani, founder and CEO of Masimo, stated: "We are honored that Uludag University Hospital, one of the top-performing hospitals in Turkey with an inspiring reputation for excellence, has selected Masimo for its patient monitoring needs. As a forward-thinking healthcare organization that embraces innovative medical technologies, we are eager to help Uludag improve its already superb patient safety and outcomes."

1 Shah N, Ragaswamy H, Govindugari K, Estanol L. "Performance of three new-generation pulse oximeters during motion and low perfusion in volunteers." Journal of Clinical Anesthesia. 2012 (10.1016/j.jclinane.2011.10.012) Available online here
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 here
3 Awada W.F.N., Maher F. Reduction in Red Blood Cell Transfusions during Neurosurgery with Noninvasive and Continuous Hemoglobin Monitoring. Proceedings of the Society for Technology in Anesthesia Annual Meeting ; 2013 Jan 9-12; Phoenix AZ. Available here.
4 Friedman MT et al. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2006 Apr;130(4):474-9.
5 Marik PE.et.al. Crit Care Med. 2008;36(9):2667-74

About Uludag University Hospital

Uludag University Hospital, with 880 beds and only one of two hospitals in Turkey to have Joint Commission International accreditation, is now leveraging Masimo SpHb in its operating rooms and Intensive Care Units. Please visit http://en.uludag.edu.tr/

About Masimo

Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) is the global leader in innovative noninvasive 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 help clinicians detect life-threatening events. More than 100 independent and objective studies have shown that Masimo SET^® outperforms other pulse oximetry technologies, even under the most challenging clinical conditions, including patient motion and low peripheral perfusion. In 2005, Masimo introduced rainbow ^® Pulse CO-Oximetry™ technology, allowing noninvasive and continuous monitoring of blood constituents that previously required invasive procedures; total hemoglobin (SpHb^®), oxygen content (SpOC^™), carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO^®), methemoglobin (SpMet^®), PVI^®, and perfusion index (PI), in addition to measure-through motion SpO₂, and pulse rate. In 2008, Masimo introduced Patient SafetyNet™, a remote monitoring and wireless clinician notification system designed to help hospitals avoid preventable deaths and injuries associated with failure to rescue events. In 2009, Masimo introduced rainbow^® Acoustic Monitoring^™, the first-ever commercially available noninvasive and continuous monitoring of acoustic respiration rate (RRa™). Masimo SET^® and Masimo rainbow^® technologies also can be found in over 100 multiparameter patient monitors from over 50 medical device manufacturers around the world. Founded in 1989, Masimo has the mission of "Improving Patient Outcome 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.

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; risks related to our belief that Masimo SET has been shown to virtually eliminate false alarms and help clinicians better detect life-threatening events; risks related to our belief that Masimo's unique noninvasive SpHb measurement allows clinicians to noninvasively and continuously monitor hemoglobin blood levels, reduces risky and unnecessary blood transfusions, speeds necessary blood transfusions, dramatically reduces costs, and contributes to positive clinical outcomes and patient safety in all patients and in every clinical situation; 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.

Masimo, SET, Signal Extraction Technology, Improving Patient Outcome and Reducing Cost of Care... by Taking Noninvasive Monitoring to New Sites and Applications, rainbow, SpHb, SpOC, SpCO, SpMet, PVI, rainbow Acoustic Monitoring, RRa, Radical-7, Rad-87, Rad-57,Rad-8, Rad-5,Pulse CO-Oximetry, Pulse CO-Oximeter, Adaptive Threshold Alarm, and SEDLine are trademarks or registered trademarks of Masimo Corporation. The use of the trademarks Patient SafetyNet and PSN is under license from University HealthSystem Consortium.

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