Masimo Initiates Full Market Release of Rainbow Acoustic Monitoring

IRVINE, Calif., June 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Masimo (Nasdaq: MASI), the inventor of Pulse CO-Oximetry™ and Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry, announced today the full market release of its latest medical technology breakthrough—Masimo Rainbow Acoustic Monitoring™— providing continuous and noninvasive respiration rate (RRa™) that is accurate, easy-to-use, and enhances patient tolerance.  With full commercial availability to hospitals worldwide, Masimo Rainbow Acoustic Monitoring is expected to have a significant impact on the general care floor and during procedural sedation by helping clinicians detect respiratory compromise and patient distress earlier.

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Respiration rate is an important vital sign and is especially important for post-surgical patients receiving patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) for pain management as sedation can induce respiratory depression and place patients at considerable risk of serious injury or death. (1-4) Although the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) recommends continuous oxygenation and ventilation monitoring in all patients receiving opioids, (5,6) current methods for respiration rate monitoring are limited by reliability or patient tolerance.  

"We now have an accurate monitor that continuously displays respiratory rate—the neglected vital sign—from a sensor that is unnoticeable to the patient," stated Michael Ramsay, M.D., Chief of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. "The digital signal is transmitted to the care giver and serves as an early warning signal of respiratory compromise."

Marilyn Nemerever, RN, Director of Acute Care at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, stated, "Our success with Rainbow Acoustic Monitoring and the way it allows our clinicians to identify patients in distress earlier and then make the necessary clinical interventions has led us to expand its use, along with Patient Safety Net, to other care areas within the hospital system. Implementation of these key technologies have greatly contributed to the culture of safety at Swedish Medical Center."

Masimo Founder and CEO, Joe Kiani, stated, "The excellent feedback we received from hospital clinicians during the limited market release demonstrates that Masimo Rainbow Acoustic Monitoring addresses a longstanding and growing need to more accurately and easily monitor patient breathing.  The full market release of Rainbow Acoustic Monitoring means that hospitals around the world now have a new tool to significantly improve patient safety and decrease the cost of care."  

Masimo Rainbow Acoustic Monitoring is currently available through Masimo direct sales representatives and authorized distributors worldwide.  For sales inquiries, please email [email protected] or visit:  http://www.masimo.com/rra/.

About Masimo

Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) develops innovative 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 Masimo Rainbow SET® Pulse CO-Oximetry™, 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 PVI®, in addition to SpO2, pulse rate, and perfusion index (PI).  In 2009, Masimo introduced Rainbow Acoustic Monitoring™, the first-ever noninvasive and continuous monitoring of acoustic respiration rate (RRa™).  Masimo's Rainbow platform offers a breakthrough in patient safety by helping clinicians detect life-threatening conditions and helping guide treatment options.  Founded in 1989, Masimo has the mission of "Improving Patient Outcomes 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 and performance of Masimo Rainbow Acoustic Monitoring; our belief that the breakthrough respiration rate monitoring capabilities of Masimo's proprietary technology will provide sufficient sensitivity and specificity to measure respiratory rate in a variety of patients and monitoring conditions, enabling clinicians to detect and treat respiratory compromise and patient distress earlier; as well as assumptions regarding full commercialization timing and worldwide market availability of the technology; and 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 forward-looking 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 Outcomes and Reducing Cost of Care by Taking Noninvasive Monitoring to New Sites and Applications, Rainbow, SpHb, SpOC, SpCO, SpMet, PVI, RRa, Radical-7, Rad-87, Rad-57, Rad-9, Rad-8, Rad-5,Pulse CO-Oximetry and Pulse CO-Oximeter are trademarks or registered trademarks of Masimo Corporation.

SOURCE Masimo Corporation