University of North Carolina Hospitals Standardizes to Masimo SET® Pulse Oximetry for Improved Patient Outcomes

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. and IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) today announced that the University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill, ranked nationally in three adult and 10 pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report (2012-2013), has converted to Masimo SET^® pulse oximetry, the standard-of-care at leading hospitals worldwide.

UNC Hospitals joins a growing list of nationally recognized health organizations using Masimo SET^®, clinically shown to virtually eliminate false alarms¹ and help clinicians detect life-threatening events.² More than 100 independent clinical studies have confirmed that Masimo SET^® technology allows clinicians to accurately monitor blood oxygen saturation in the most challenging conditions – helping to substantially contribute to improved patient outcomes.

"We had been using a competitor's pulse oximeter for many years, but I was very familiar with the data demonstrating the superior results of Masimo's technology," said Carolyn Viall Donohue, Associate Chief Nursing Officer and Associate Vice President at University of North Carolina Health Care System. "We were very excited to do a side-by-side comparison with Masimo on patients under anesthesia, and in the ICU and NICU. During the live trial, Masimo performed very well. While Masimo's pulse oximetry is price competitive, this is not just a money issue. Going with Masimo was an improvement in patient care for us."

She recollects an incident in late 2011. Two young boys were admitted to the burn unit with severe inhalation injuries. Their oxygen levels were low, and the staff were unable to maintain pulse oximeter readings on one of the boys. The hospital called a Masimo sales representative and requested a Masimo Radical-7^® that the hospital was about to use in a trial of the product. "With the Masimo unit, we got readings on this child when we were not able to get readings from our current pulse oximeter equipment," Viall Donohue said. "The doctors and nurses didn't want to return the (Masimo) pulse oximeter. After this episode the director of respiratory therapy told me, 'I'm a believer in Masimo technology.'"

For 20 straight years, UNC Hospitals – which includes N.C. Memorial Hospital, N.C. Children's Hospital, N.C. Women's Hospital, N.C. Neurosciences Hospital, and N.C. Cancer Hospital – has been included in the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals list for multiple specialties. Only 3 percent of hospitals in the United States meet the U.S. News Best Hospitals criteria.

In keeping with its commitment to provide state-of-the-art patient care, UNC Hospitals also is installing Masimo Patient SafetyNet™, which can help ensure patient safety by noninvasively and continuously measuring and tracking a patient's underlying physiological conditions to assist clinicians in detecting changes or abnormalities that signal declining health status. If a patient's condition deteriorates, the system automatically sends wireless alerts directly to clinicians – prompting a potentially lifesaving response at the patient's bedside. Patient SafetyNet also has been clinically shown to reduce preventable and costly rescue events and transfers to intensive care units. ³

"We are honored to be partners with UNC Hospitals, which has an impressive focus on patient empathy and a well-deserved reputation for providing stellar care," said Masimo founder and CEO Joe Kiani. "By comparing Masimo in side-by-side trials, UNC Hospitals demonstrated its ongoing and data-driven commitment to improving patient safety and care by embracing leading-edge technologies. We share this vision and mission, and look forward to working with UNC Hospitals now and well into the future."

1 Shah N, Ragaswamy HB, Govindugari K, Estanol L "Performance of Three New-Generation Pulse Oximeters during Motion and Low Perfusion in Volunteers".J Clin Anesth. 2012 Aug;24(5):385-91.
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 Taenzer A, Blike G, McGrath S, Pyke J, Herrick M, Renaud C, Morgan J. "Postoperative Monitoring – The Dartmouth Experience." Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation Newsletter Spring-Summer 2012. Available online

About University of North Carolina Hospitals
UNC Hospitals is an 824-bed public, academic medical center operated by and for the people of North Carolina. The Hospitals' mission is to provide high quality patient care, to educate health care professionals, to advance research and to provide community service. UNC Hospitals includes North Carolina Cancer Hospital, North Carolina Children's Hospital, North Carolina Memorial Hospital, North Carolina Neurosciences Hospital, and North Carolina Women's Hospital. Each year UNC Hospitals cares for patients from all 100 counties in North Carolina and several surrounding states.

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 SET^® Pulse CO-Oximetry technology, allowing noninvasive and continuous monitoring of blood constituents that previously required invasive procedures, including total hemoglobin (SpHb^®), oxygen content (SpOC^TM), carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO^®), methemoglobin (SpMet^®), and Pleth Variability Index (PVI^®), in addition to SpO₂, pulse rate, and perfusion index (PI). 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's unique noninvasive measurement technologies, including: Patient SafetyNet contributes to positive clinical outcomes and patient safety; risks related to our belief that Masimo noninvasive medical breakthroughs provide cost-effective solutions with comparable accuracy and unique advantages, including: immediate and continuous results that enable earlier treatment without causing invasive trauma 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.

SOURCE Masimo Corporation