Fortis Healthcare Signs Agreement Giving India's Fastest-Growing Hospital Chain Access to Masimo's State-of-the-Art Noninvasive Patient Monitoring Solutions

IRVINE, Calif., April 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Fortis Healthcare, India's leading provider of integrated healthcare services with 68 hospitals across the country, and Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) jointly announce a multi-year medical technology supplier agreement that allows Fortis hospitals access to Masimo's full line of the most technologically and clinically-advanced pulse oximetry and noninvasive, continuous patient monitoring solutions.

As part of the new agreement, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, New Delhi, becomes the first hospital in the Fortis Healthcare Group to install 100 Masimo Radical-7s to standardize its operating rooms and critical care patient rooms with Masimo technology.

"This new preferred supplier relationship enables all hospitals and healthcare facilities owned, managed, and contracted with Fortis Healthcare to directly access and purchase Masimo's complete market-leading line of advanced noninvasive patient monitoring solutions," stated Dr. Raajiv Singhal, zonal director, Fortis Healthcare.  "Now all Fortis-affiliated hospitals, beginning with Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, can benefit from the advanced noninvasive capabilities of Masimo SET® Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry, Masimo rainbow® SET Pulse CO-Oximetry™, Masimo SafetyNet™, and SEDLine® brain function monitoring solutions at significant contracted savings."

Fortis hospitals now can purchase Masimo standalone (Radical-7®, Rad-87®, Rad-8®) and portable (Rad-5®, Rad-57®, Pronto, Pronto-7™) rainbow Pulse CO-Oximeters on contract, along with ReSposable, adhesive, and reusable sensors for all categories of patients, from neonatal and infant/pediatric to adult.

Dr. Anil Karlekar, head of anesthesia and critical care medicine at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, stated, "This long-term association with Masimo will provide Fortis with industry-leading medical technology innovations and patient-monitoring solutions that will benefit patient care and the Fortis vision of creating a world-class integrated healthcare delivery system in India."

As the first hospital in the Fortis network to standardize its operating rooms and critical care areas to Masimo rainbow SET Pulse CO-Oximetry technology, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute recently installed 100 Masimo Radical-7s – with a select number providing clinicians with access to Masimo noninvasive total hemoglobin (SpHb®) and pleth variability index (PVI®) measurement capabilities. Monitoring SpHb helps clinicians quickly and continually assess a patient's hemoglobin blood level, which may help reduce unnecessary blood transfusions and associated costs. PVI may allow clinicians to noninvasively and continuously assess fluid status of patients. Masimo noninvasive oximeters and sensors enable rapid and continuous blood-constituent monitoring without the need to draw blood – providing tools to detect signs of anemia, internal bleeding, and the need for a blood transfusion in patients undergoing surgery. And because the same sensors follow patients from the OR to critical care areas of the hospital, each patient has a lifesaving continuum of care.

"Since installing the new technology in our operating rooms, Masimo Radical-7 monitors have noninvasively tracked and trended heart rate, oxygen saturation, hemoglobin, and fluid volume changes reliably," Dr. Karlekar added, "providing a unique new view into the patient's underlying physiological status, which has the potential to improve clinical decisions during surgery and patient outcomes during recovery."

Masimo rainbow SET Pulse CO-Oximetry is a breakthrough technology platform that allows hospitals to noninvasively measure and continuously monitor blood constituents and physiological parameters that previously required invasive procedures – including: total hemoglobin (SpHb®), oxygen content (SpOC™), carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO®), methemoglobin (SpMet®), Pleth Variability Index (PVI®), and acoustic respiration rate (RRa™), in addition to the Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion performance of Masimo SET oxyhemoglobin (SpO2), perfusion index (PI), and pulse rate (PR). The oximetry at leading hospitals worldwide, Masimo rainbow SET provides real-time results that enable clinicians to more rapidly assess patients and detect and treat adverse, potentially life-threatening conditions earlier. *

Masimo rainbow Pulse CO-Oximeters deliver additional features with simple field-installed software upgrades, so healthcare facilities can fight the rising costs of equipment obsolescence. No more costly device and hardware replacements. Masimo's easy upgrader tool adds new noninvasive measurements and patient-monitoring capabilities to existing "rainbow-ready" Masimo oximeters.

Masimo President of Worldwide Sales, Marketing, and Clinical Research, Jon Coleman, stated, "Fortis Healthcare is blazing a healthcare transformation trail in India with Masimo SET and rainbow SET advanced noninvasive technologies. Leveraging the unique benefits of our noninvasive oximetry and patient monitoring measurements and devices provides Fortis clinicians with immediate access to clinical measurements and critical physiologic intelligence, like real-time hemoglobin levels, that previously required invasive, time-consuming, and costly testing with delayed results. This translates to potentially earlier clinical decision-making that improves patient safety and outcomes while reducing the cost of care."

*To see a summary of all known clinical studies and abstracts on Masimo technologies and noninvasive measurements, please visit: http://www.masimo.com/cpub/clinicals.htm.

About Fortis Healthcare
Fortis Healthcare (India) Limited is committed to clinical excellence and patient-centric healthcare, which is manifest in hospital design, patient services, medical programs and the compassionate approach of medical and non-medical hospital staff. Fortis commissioned its first hospital in 2001 at Mohali, near Chandigarh, and has expanded its operations to become a network with an over 10,000 bed capacity across 68 hospitals. The Fortis network has a large number of international accreditations, including four JCI (Joint Commission International) and 10 NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals) certifications. The network's capability covers multi-speciality hospitals and super-speciality centres that provide tertiary and quaternary healthcare to patients in the major medical specialities.  For more information, visit www.fortishealthcare.com

About Fortis Escorts Heart Institute
Recognized the world over as a center of cardiac excellence, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute provides the latest technology in cardiac bypass surgery, minimally invasive surgery, interventional cardiology, noninvasive cardiology, and pediatric cardiology to more than 14,500 inpatients and 7,200 emergency patients a year. With more than 200 cardiac doctors, 1600 employees, 285 patient beds, 5 Cath Labs, and a host of other world-class facilities, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute is backed by the most advanced laboratories and the latest technology for cardiac care.

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 detect life-threatening events.  More than 100 independent and objective studies demonstrate Masimo SET provides the most reliable SpO2 and pulse rate measurements 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™), carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO®), methemoglobin (SpMet®), and Pleth Variability Index (PVI®), in addition to SpO2, pulse rate, and perfusion index (PI).  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 noninvasive and continuous monitoring of acoustic respiration rate (RRa™).  Masimo's rainbow SET technology platform offers a breakthrough in patient safety by helping clinicians detect life-threatening conditions and helping guide treatment options.  In 2010, Masimo acquired SEDLine®, a pioneer in the development of innovative brain function monitoring technology and devices.  Masimo SET and Masimo rainbow SET technologies can be also 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's unique noninvasive measurement technologies, including: total hemoglobin (SpHb®), PVI®, acoustic respiration rate (RRa™), and SEDLine® contribute 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 are under license from University HealthSystem Consortium.

SOURCE Masimo

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