IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) announced today, in advance of World Pneumonia Day tomorrow, that it has received a grant of $4.95 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The grant will support Masimo’s efforts to develop a low-cost pulse oximeter for use in pneumonia screening in several low-resource areas outside the U.S. While still in development, the device will likely measure oxygen saturation (SpO2) and respiration rate (RR) - two key parameters that would provide additional information to clinicians when screening potential pneumonia cases in high-burden settings. The grant will also support studying the clinical use environment in such settings to ensure that the device is user friendly and fit for its purpose. The grant may also support the education materials to promote proper training and use of the device at all literacy levels.
Pneumonia remains the single largest treatable infectious cause of death in children worldwide, causing over 900,000 deaths each year among children under 5 years of age.1 In a study funded by the BMGF Diagnostics Modelling Consortium, the researchers concluded that in settings where supplemental oxygen is available, the addition of pulse oximetry to standard integrated management of child illness protocols could reduce pneumonia mortality rates.2 More recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) has sponsored an ongoing multi-country study to further assess how to enhance community case management of pneumonia treatment.3
Enhancing patient screening is critically important to reducing the global burden of pneumonia. Moreover, enhanced screening may empower healthcare providers by supporting informed decisions related to pneumonia diagnosis and treatment, with the appropriate administration of antibiotics and oxygen therapy when needed. Masimo and BMGF hope that Masimo SET® Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion™ pulse oximetry technology can help better screen children in even the most challenging conditions.
Rasa Izadnegahdar, Senior Program Officer on the Pneumonia Team at BMGF, commented, “We are excited to partner with Masimo for the purpose of improving screening for pneumonia to allow improved referral decisions by health workers in low-resource settings. Evaluating a child for fast breathing is the cornerstone of pneumonia assessment and combining this with a reliable and effective approach to assessing oxygen saturation can have significant impact in ensuring children with pneumonia receive appropriate care. Our landscape review of pneumonia diagnostic aid technologies has clearly demonstrated the poor performance of existing diagnostic aids, particularly respiratory rate timers. Diagnostic aids with improved sensitivity and specificity that are adapted and designed for use by health workers and caregivers can make a significant impact on pneumonia treatment. We look forward to working with Masimo to adapt their precise and accurate technology to respond to the needs of health workers, caregivers, and children in countries where pneumonia burden and deaths remain unacceptably high.”
Masimo SET® Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion™ pulse oximetry is used to monitor millions of patients around the world. This project demonstrates the company’s strong commitment to reducing the unnecessarily high global burden of pneumonia by bringing its proven patient screening and monitoring technology to the areas of the world that need it most.
“We are gratified to be able to partner with BMGF, which recently joined us in co-founding the United for Oxygen Alliance to increase access to oxygen and pulse oximetry in Ethiopia, in supporting our efforts to help fight pneumonia,” said Joe Kiani, Founder and CEO of Masimo. “We hope to bring a much-needed screening tool to areas of the world blighted by countless needless deaths that are due to an illness considered low-risk in the developed world.”
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References
- Pneumonia Fact Sheet, World Health Organization (WHO), September 2016. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheefts/fs331/en/.
- Floyd J et al. Evaluating the impact of pulse oximetry on childhood pneumonia mortality in resource-poor settings. Nature. 2015 Dec 3;528(7580):S53-9.
- World Health Organization (WHO), 2016.
About Masimo
Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) is a global leader in innovative noninvasive monitoring technologies. Our mission is to improve patient outcomes and reduce the cost of care by taking noninvasive monitoring to new sites and applications. In 1995, the company debuted Masimo SET® Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion™ pulse oximetry, which has been shown in multiple studies to significantly reduce false alarms and accurately monitor for true alarms. Masimo SET® is estimated to be used on more than 100 million patients in leading hospitals and other healthcare settings around the world. In 2005, Masimo introduced rainbow® Pulse CO-Oximetry technology, allowing noninvasive and continuous monitoring of blood constituents that previously could only be measured invasively, including total hemoglobin (SpHb®), oxygen content (SpOC™), carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO®), methemoglobin (SpMet®), and more recently, Pleth Variability Index (PVI®) and Oxygen Reserve Index (ORI™), in addition to SpO2, pulse rate, and perfusion index (PI). In 2014, Masimo introduced Root®, an intuitive patient monitoring and connectivity platform with the Masimo Open Connect™ (MOC-9™) interface. Masimo is also taking an active leadership role in mHealth with products such as the Radius-7™ wearable patient monitor and the MightySat™ fingertip pulse oximeter. Additional information about Masimo and its products may be found at www.masimo.com. All published clinical studies on Masimo products can be found at http://www.masimo.com/cpub/clinical-evidence.htm.
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 include, among others, statements regarding the potential effectiveness of Masimo pulse oximetry. 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 Masimo pulse oximetry, contribute to positive clinical outcomes and patient safety; risks related to our belief that Masimo noninvasive medical breakthroughs provide comparable accuracy and unique advantages; 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. —end—
