Breakthrough Noninvasive Blood Oxygen Monitoring and Alert System Helps Safeguard Patients Taking Opioids at Home

Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) announced today the CE marking and launch in western Europe of Masimo SafetyNet Alert™, an arterial blood oxygen saturation monitoring and alert system designed for use at home. Masimo SafetyNet Alert features Signal Extraction Technology^® wearable fingertip pulse oximetry sensor that communicates wirelessly to an accompanying Home Medical Hub and smartphone app. Masimo SafetyNet Alert monitors blood oxygen saturation (SpO₂) and pulse rate (PR) using clinically proven Masimo SET^® Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion™ pulse oximetry and perfusion index (Pi). The system provides escalating alerts when drops in oxygen levels are detected, designed to wake up the person suffering from opioid overdose and if they do not, to send alerts to others when help may be needed.

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Masimo SafetyNet Alert™ (Photo: Business Wire)

Over 200 million people are monitored with Masimo SET^® pulse oximetry in hospitals each year.¹ In hospitals, continuous Masimo SET^® oxygen saturation monitoring has been shown to reduce harm associated with opioids in multiple clinical trials, including a 10-year study in which researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center found that the use of Masimo SET^®-based continuous patient surveillance monitoring resulted in zero opioid-related preventable deaths or brain damage in their post-surgical wards. The researchers also found there was a reduction in rapid rescue events by 60%, a reduction in ICU transfers by 50%, and an estimated $7 million annually in cost savings.^2-4

Opioids are powerful painkillers, and are commonly used as part of recovery after surgery and for patients with chronic pain, but they can also slow or stop one’s breathing, potentially leading to heart attack, brain damage, and even death. In 2020 the number of drug-related deaths recorded in England and Wales rose to 4,561, the highest since records began, and around half of these involved opioids.⁵ Worldwide, that number is even worse, with an estimated more than 100,000 people dying from opioid overdose each year.⁶ Whether taking prescription or non-prescription opioids, people can suffer from the condition known as opioid-induced respiratory depression (OIRD) to varying degrees.⁶ Opioid overdose may occur while a person is particularly vulnerable, while asleep, and the risk of opioid overdose-related death is heightened for people taking opioids for the first time, those who have sleep apnea, COPD, or asthma, along with those who combine opioids with alcohol or other sedatives, amongst other factors.^6-8 By monitoring a person’s oxygen saturation level, especially while asleep, and providing escalating alerts when help may be needed, Masimo SafetyNet Alert can help identify life-threatening opioid overdose before it causes lasting harm or even death.

Masimo SafetyNet Alert leverages the same SET^® pulse oximetry technology and a similar notification escalation policy used in hospitals to bring hospital-proven monitoring to the home setting. The system provides escalating visual and audible alerts on the smartphone app and at the Home Medical Hub station, which are designed to alert the patient or anyone nearby to help prompt action. If oxygen levels continue to decline, designated emergency contacts, such as friends and family members, are also notified via text messages, so that they can intervene or involve Emergency Medical Services as needed.

Masimo SafetyNet Alert brings to the home the breakthrough Masimo SET^® pulse oximetry used in hospitals around the world. SET^® has been clinically proven to help care teams enhance patient safety and improve patient outcomes; in fact, more than 100 independent and objective studies have shown that Masimo SET^® outperforms other pulse oximetry technologies during motion and low perfusion conditions, providing clinicians with increased sensitivity and specificity to make critical care decisions.⁹

Dr. Mike Durkin, a Senior NHS Advisor on Patient Safety Policy and Leadership for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Imperial College Patient Safety Translational Research Centre, said, “Patients recovering from surgery still need pain relief using opioid drugs after they are discharged from hospital and return home. However, these drugs have significant side-effects, particularly on the depression of breathing, which without urgent intervention can result in serious harm or death. The technology is now available to monitor the impact of opioids on breathing and it is vital that patients are given the opportunity to easily and continuously monitor their oxygen levels and vital signs while taking these medications at home. This will greatly improve the safety of patients while rehabilitating at home.”

Yvonne Gardner, mother of 21-year-old Parker Stewart, who died of an opioid overdose after taking only half of the prescribed dose of painkillers following a tonsillectomy, said, “I’ve had so many people call me personally and say, what would you do differently? My son needs a tonsillectomy, or my daughter is going into surgery. I tell them: make sure your doctor gives you a monitor.”

Joe Kiani, Founder and CEO of Masimo, said, “30 years ago, we had the dream of improving patient outcomes and reducing the cost of care by taking noninvasive monitoring to new sites and applications. Bringing our measure-through motion and low perfusion pulse oximetry to the home to monitor patients taking opioids is fulfilling that dream in a way that I could not have imagined at the time. I hope tens of thousands of lives will be saved each year from opioid overdose with the launch of Masimo SafetyNet Alert.”

Masimo SafetyNet Alert has not received FDA 510(k) clearance and is not available for sale in the United States.

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About Masimo

Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) is a global medical technology company that develops and produces a wide array of industry-leading monitoring technologies, including innovative measurements, sensors, patient monitors, and automation and connectivity solutions. Our mission is to improve patient outcomes, reduce the cost of care, and take noninvasive monitoring to new sites and applications. Masimo SET^® Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion™ pulse oximetry, introduced in 1995, has been shown in over 100 independent and objective studies to outperform other pulse oximetry technologies.⁹ Masimo SET^® has also been shown to help clinicians reduce severe retinopathy of prematurity in neonates,¹⁰ improve CCHD screening in newborns,¹¹ and, when used for continuous monitoring with Masimo Patient SafetyNet™ in post-surgical wards, reduce rapid response team activations, ICU transfers, and costs.^2-4,12 Masimo SET^® is estimated to be used on more than 200 million patients in leading hospitals and other healthcare settings around the world,¹ and is the primary pulse oximetry at 9 of the top 10 hospitals as ranked in the 2021-22 U.S. News and World Report Best Hospitals Honor Roll.¹³ Masimo continues to refine SET^® and in 2018, announced that SpO₂ accuracy on RD SET^® sensors during conditions of motion has been significantly improved, providing clinicians with even greater confidence that the SpO₂ values they rely on accurately reflect a patient’s physiological status. 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^®), Pleth Variability Index (PVi^®), RPVi™ (rainbow^® PVi), and Oxygen Reserve Index (ORi™). In 2013, Masimo introduced the Root^® Patient Monitoring and Connectivity Platform, built from the ground up to be as flexible and expandable as possible to facilitate the addition of other Masimo and third-party monitoring technologies; key Masimo additions include Next Generation SedLine^® Brain Function Monitoring, O3^® Regional Oximetry, and ISA™ Capnography with NomoLine^® sampling lines. Masimo’s family of continuous and spot-check monitoring Pulse CO-Oximeters^® includes devices designed for use in a variety of clinical and non-clinical scenarios, including tetherless, wearable technology, such as Radius-7^® and Radius PPG™, portable devices like Rad-67^®, fingertip pulse oximeters like MightySat^® Rx, and devices available for use both in the hospital and at home, such as Rad-97^®. Masimo hospital automation and connectivity solutions are centered around the Masimo Hospital Automation™ platform, and include Iris^® Gateway, iSirona™, Patient SafetyNet, Replica™, Halo ION™, UniView^®, UniView :60™, and Masimo SafetyNet™. Additional information about Masimo and its products may be found at www.masimo.com. Published clinical studies on Masimo products can be found at www.masimo.com/evidence/featured-studies/feature/.

ORi and RPVi have not received FDA 510(k) clearance and are not available for sale in the United States. The use of the trademark Patient SafetyNet is under license from University HealthSystem Consortium.

References

1. Estimate: Masimo data on file.
2. Taenzer A et al. Postoperative Monitoring – The Dartmouth Experience. Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation Newsletter. Spring-Summer 2012.
3. McGrath S et al. Surveillance Monitoring Management for General Care Units: Strategy, Design, and Implementation. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. 2016 Jul;42(7):293-302.
4. McGrath S et al. Inpatient Respiratory Arrest Associated With Sedative and Analgesic Medications: Impact of Continuous Monitoring on Patient Mortality and Severe Morbidity. J Patient Saf. 2020 14 Mar. DOI: 10.1097/PTS.0000000000000696.
5. Office for National Statistics. (2021) Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales: 2020 registrations. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsrelatedtodrugpoisoninginenglandandwales/2020. Last accessed August 2021.
6. Opioid Overdose. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/opioid-overdose.
7. Gupta K et al. Curr Opin Anaesthesiol. 2018;31(1):110-119.
8. Subramani Y et al. Br J Anaesth. 2017;119(5):885-899.
9. Published clinical studies on pulse oximetry and the benefits of Masimo SET^® can be found on our website at http://www.masimo.com. Comparative studies include independent and objective studies which are comprised of abstracts presented at scientific meetings and peer-reviewed journal articles.
10. Castillo A et al. Prevention of Retinopathy of Prematurity in Preterm Infants through Changes in Clinical Practice and SpO₂ Technology. Acta Paediatr. 2011 Feb;100(2):188-92.
11. de-Wahl Granelli A et al. Impact of pulse oximetry screening on the detection of duct dependent congenital heart disease: a Swedish prospective screening study in 39,821 newborns. BMJ. 2009;Jan 8;338.
12. Taenzer A et al. Impact of pulse oximetry surveillance on rescue events and intensive care unit transfers: a before-and-after concurrence study. Anesthesiology. 2010:112(2):282-287.
13. http://health.usnews.com/health-care/best-hospitals/articles/best-hospitals-honor-roll-and-overview.

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 SafetyNet Alert™. 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 SafetyNet Alert, contribute to positive clinical outcomes and patient safety; risks related to our belief that Masimo noninvasive medical breakthroughs provide cost-effective solutions and unique advantages; risks related to COVID-19; 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.

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