Libya Becomes First to Standardize Its Blood Donation Centers to Masimo Pronto-7® for Quick, Noninvasive Spot-Checking of Hemoglobin (SpHb®), SpO2, Pulse Rate, and Perfusion Index

-- Masimo SpHb® Now the National Standard of Care at Blood Donation Centers and Operating Rooms Throughout Libya

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates and IRVINE, California, Jan. 31, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) announced today that Libya has become the first country to begin using the Masimo Pronto-7®— a handheld noninvasive hemoglobin spot-check device — to screen potential blood donors for low hemoglobin level in all of its major blood-donation centers. The announcement comes at Arab Health, the world's longest-running healthcare exhibition and congress held each January in Dubai.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100623/LA25373)

Donating blood prior to your own surgical procedure or for those of friends and family members is common practice throughout the Middle East. However, until the use of Pronto-7, centers in Libya were using invasive blood draws to test donors for low blood count or anemia. It is estimated that about 10% of people who attempt to donate blood are deferred because of a low hemoglobin level.(1)

The palm-sized Pronto-7, with dimensions of just 13 cm x 7.2 cm x 2.5 cm (5.1" x 2.8" x 1") and weight of 296 grams (10.5 ounces), offers a breakthrough solution for quick and easy spot-check measurements of hemoglobin, SpO2, pulse rate, and perfusion index in less than one minute —without needles, time-consuming laboratory analysis, blood contamination, hazardous medical waste, and patient discomfort associated with traditional blood tests.

"The Pronto-7's accuracy, portability and ease-of-use helps clinicians protect donors from unintentional harm," said Dr. Nurideen Abdulhamid Dagman, Libya Minister of Health and former Director of the Benghazi Central Blood Bank. "With the use of advanced technologies such as the Pronto-7, Libya is demonstrating its commitment to patient safety."

Standardizing blood donor assessments using the Pronto-7 follows Libya's national adoption of Masimo continuous noninvasive hemoglobin (SpHb®) as the standard of care in the country's operating rooms in 2008.

"Libya's leadership in implementing Masimo's noninvasive hemoglobin monitoring technology as a national standard of care, first in operating rooms and now at blood donation centers, shows the country's commitment to adopting advanced medical technologies that improve patient care and safety," said Masimo founder and CEO Joe Kiani. "We applaud their efforts to put patient safety first and acknowledge the tireless work of Motahida Medical Co., our distributor in Libya, for making this achievement possible. Masimo is dedicated to expanding our presence in the Middle East and helping this very important region to continue to adopt leading-edge technologies for the betterment of patient care and safety."

(1) BloodCenter of Wisconsin. Donating Blood, Investigators: Alan E. Mast, M.D., Ph.D. Link. Accessed: February 2, 2009.

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 help clinicians 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™), 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™, 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 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: risks related to our assumptions regarding the repeatability of clinical results, risks related to our assumptions that Masimo SpHb accurately tracks and trends Hb changes in all patients, risks related to our belief that the Pronto-7 enables quick and easy noninvasive spot-checking of hemoglobin (SpHb®), SpO2, pulse rate, and perfusion index at the point-of-care for all patients, 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.

Media Contact:
Mike Drummond
Masimo Corporation
Phone: +1 (949) 297-7434
Email: mdrummond@masimo.com

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 are under license from University HealthSystem Consortium.