IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) announced today that the Masimo Foundation has co-founded the United for Oxygen Alliance, as part of a Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) commitment. The first-of-its-kind public-private partnership, announced this week at the final CGI Annual Meeting, will seek to expand access to medical oxygen and pulse oximetry for women and children in Ethiopia. Other partners in the Alliance, which has fifteen members in total, include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the United Nations, PATH, Philips, the Pneumonia Innovations Team, Save the Children, UNICEF, and USAID.

Lack of medical oxygen access contributes to the deaths of more than 120,000 young children and thousands of pregnant women, globally, each year. It is estimated that in Ethiopia alone, each year 11,000 women die in pregnancy or during childbirth, 60,000 babies die in their first month, and 30,000 children die from pneumonia.^1,2 Many of these deaths could be prevented by better access to medical oxygen and reliable pulse oximetry technology.³ An oxygen access agenda is central to that of the Ethiopian government, which has made it a part of their 2015-2020 Health Sector Transformation Plan and National Newborn and Child Survival Strategy.

United for Oxygen will partner with the Ethiopian government to increase availability of pulse oximetry screenings and oxygen therapy technologies across the country. In addition, it will provide training for local staff; establish sustainable financial solutions for procuring, installing, and maintaining equipment; and promote oxygen access and technologies in the policies and guidelines of Ethiopian health authorities. After the pilot program, the Alliance hopes to roll out similar medical oxygen and pulse oximetry programs in other countries where women and children are particularly at risk.

Leith Greenslade, Co-Chair of the Pneumonia Innovations Team, commented, “United for Oxygen is the first time companies and development agencies have joined forces to support a government to increase access to pulse oximetry and oxygen therapy across an entire African nation - in this case Ethiopia. My hope is that we will demonstrate that not only can pulse oximetry and oxygen prevent many more Ethiopian children from dying of pneumonia, but that health systems that routinely provide pulse oximetry screening and oxygen will be much more effective at driving down death rates from childbirth, unsafe surgery, cardiac arrest and injury.”

Masimo, as a global leader in noninvasive monitoring technologies and whose SET^® Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion™ pulse oximetry technology is estimated to be used on more than 100 million patients around the world, will be responsible for improving the availability of pulse oximetry in hospitals and health centers, particularly in maternity and pediatric units. Masimo’s role in United for Oxygen will also include developing an efficient, effective health screening model to prevent, detect, and treat pneumonia, as well as collaborating on recommendations for sustaining the program post-deployment through training, education, and maintenance.

Rasa Izadnegahdar, Senior Program Officer on the Pneumonia Team, BMGF, noted, “Masimo is uniquely positioned to provide leadership in the introduction of innovative life-saving devices in partnership with countries as recently exemplified by the Oxygen Roadmap of the Ethiopia Federal Ministry of Health.”

“This cannot be overstated: regardless of where you live or were born, you deserve access to quality healthcare—including the life-saving benefits of reliable pulse oximetry and oxygen therapy,” said Joe Kiani, Founder and CEO of Masimo. “Masimo continues to champion systematically safe, dignified health care for all, and we are proud for the Masimo Foundation to be one of the founding members of United for Oxygen. We look forward to collaborating further on this important project.”

@MasimoInnovates | #Masimo | @0X2020 | #United4Oxygen | #CGI2016 | #UNGA | #globalgoals

References

1. Kuti BP et al. Determinants of oxygen therapy in childhood pneumonia in a resource-constrained region. ISRN Pediatr. 2013 Jun 2;2013:435976.
2. Rudan I, et al. Epidemiology and etiology of childhood pneumonia. Bull World Health Organ. 2008 May; 86(5): 408–416.
3. Floyd, et al. Evaluating the Impact of pulse oximetry on childhood pneumonia mortality in resource-poor settings. Nature. 528, S53-S59 (3 December 2015).

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 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 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; 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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