Masimo Announces $1 Million Commitment to Action with the Clinton Global Initiative to Solve Maternal Mortality & Anemia

IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) announces first-ever Commitment to Action with the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to solve the global problem of maternal mortality and anemia—beginning with Liberia and Uganda. The $1 million, two-year project initially focuses on five villages in Liberia and Uganda—two countries where the epidemics of maternal mortality and anemia are among the worst.  Masimo is also working to formalize new partnerships that will expand the commitment to additional countries and communities in an effort to combat maternal mortality and anemia in resource-poor countries across the globe. 

According to a joint statement by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, "anemia is a widespread public health problem with major consequences for human health as well as social and economic development." ¹ The most dramatic health effects of anemia—maternal and child mortality—mean that mothers and young children in developing countries face double jeopardy from preventable causes.

Anemia:  An estimated two billion people worldwide are anemic—this represents one quarter of the world's population, with women and children under five representing the highest risk groups for chronic anemia.  In fact, pregnancy-related anemia is a common condition. Severe or long-lasting anemia can result in cognitive, neurological and cardiac damage, or death.  ¹ 

Maternal Mortality:  Every 90 seconds, a woman dies from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth in the developing world.  One of every three maternal deaths (in Africa and Asia) is attributed to significant bleeding, called post-partum hemorrhage (PPH).¹   

Anemia and PPH (excessive bleeding during childbirth) can be treated and prevented if identified early; however, hemoglobin blood tests used to diagnose both anemia and excessive bleeding typically require an invasive blood draw and laboratory analysis.  This is always painful and if done inappropriately may cause infection and bleeding. Moreover, trained persons, equipment and supplies required to complete the blood draw and lab analysis are often not available or too expensive for resource-poor countries and rural areas.  Today, there is an easy and cost-effective way to measure hemoglobin in any setting.  Masimo is the first and only company to have a commercially available noninvasive hemoglobin monitor with FDA clearance.  Thanks to Masimo, its handheld hemoglobin monitor, called the Pronto™, can noninvasively measure hemoglobin levels in under a minute.  By placing a noninvasive finger sensor on the patient and pushing a button, the device can quickly measure if a mother or child is suffering from low hemoglobin. 

The public-private partnership commitment includes:  a funding grant of $300,000 provided by the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation, and Competition in Healthcare; in-kind equipment donation of $550,000 in oximeters and sensors provided by the Masimo Corporation, and additional support from Tiyatien Health—a nonprofit organization that saves lives in remote villages of Liberia by giving war survivors, gifted women, and former patients the training, equipment and support they need to become frontline health workers.  In addition, the resources, operational systems and anemia management experts of the Opio Uganda Team (OUT) will facilitate the outreach efforts in Uganda.

Officially launching in October 2012, the Maternal Mortality and Anemia project will consist of four phases:

Phase I:  Mobilize Resources & Implement Routine Anemia Screening, Education and Supplementation

Phase II: Measurement of Sustainability of Screening

Phase III: Measurement of Compliance to Education and Supplementation

Phase IV: Identification of Health and Wellness Impact and Long-term Sustainability

Masimo Founder and CEO, Joe Kiani, who made the project announcement at the CGI Annual Meeting, stated, "Solving unsolvable health problems is in our DNA.  We recognize our responsibility and the important application of our noninvasive hemoglobin technology and devices as a solution to address the global challenge of anemia and maternal death.  Our $1 million Commitment to Action with the Clinton Global Initiative and collaboration with Tiyatien Health (TH) in Liberia and the Opio Uganda Team (OUT) will provide the devices, supplies, and mobilize the necessary ground resources to help increase access to anemia screening, intervention and education in these countries. This year, CGI's theme 'designed for impact' is particularly impactful because the Pronto^™, with its breakthrough capability, ruggedness and cost point, as well as our plan of arming and training frontline health workers to diagnose and treat anemia and excessive maternal bleeding are both truly well-designed to make huge impact."

Dr. Raj Panjabi, Associate Physician with the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Co-founder of Tiyatien Health (TH) in Liberia, says: "We at Tiyatien Health share in Masimo's vision that frontline health workers and the rural mothers they serve deserve equal access as everyone else in the world to Pronto^™ and other tools of modern medicine.  Advancing this human dignity is why TH is most proud to partner with Joe Kiani and the Masimo Foundation, and why their commitment will matter for rural mothers around the world."

According to Dr. Christopher K. Opio, an Ugandan internal medicine and digestive diseases physician with the Opio Uganda Team (OUT): "As physicians, we are always looking for more efficient means of diagnosing and treating our patients.  Innovations like point-of-care testing of hemoglobin meet this need by providing an efficient, cost effective, and practical solution to problems related to hemoglobin estimation in resource limited settings."

Pronto^™ also provides the Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion performance of Masimo SET^® pulse oximetry with the highest sensitivity and specificity² and proven ability to measure through a variety of skin pigments—even opaque.  This makes Pronto^™ even more impactful in helping health workers in rural villages throughout Africa.

¹ "Focusing on Anemia: Towards an Integrated Approach for Effective Anemia Control" Joint Statement by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund; WHO 2004.  Available online here.

² 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.

About Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date CGI members have made more than 2,100 commitments, which are already improving the lives of nearly 400 million people in more than 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $69.2 billion. 

CGI also convenes CGI America, a meeting focused on collaborative solutions to economic recovery in the United States, and CGI University (CGI U), which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to address pressing challenges in their community or around the world. For more information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.

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.

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 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). 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^TM, 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. In 2012, Masimo acquired assets of Spire Semiconductor, LLC, maker of advanced light emitting diode (LED) and other advanced component-level technologies; and acquired PHASEIN AB, a developer and manufacturer of ultra-compact mainstream and sidestream capnography, multigas analyzers, and handheld capnometry solutions. Masimo SET^® and Masimo rainbow^® SET^® 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'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 is under license from University HealthSystem Consortium.

SOURCE Masimo

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