Frost & Sullivan Commends OBS Medical's Innovative Approach to Patient Monitoring

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the central stations patient monitoring market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes OBS Medical with the 2008 North American Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Award for its cutting edge Visensia(R) Hospital Patient Safety Suite. Instead of monitoring single parameter deviations as traditional devices do, Visensia(R) utilizes revolutionary technology which integrates the clinical values of five vital sign parameters (heart rate, blood pressure, SpO2, skin temperature, and respiratory rate) into a more meaningful and insightful parameter, expressed as a numerical index (the Visensia(R) Index). This Index represents the patient's wellness in real-time.

Faster emergency response times have improved patient outcomes, as well as reduced operational costs and expensive re-admissions. This has caused the patient monitoring industry to focus on innovations in connectivity and monitoring intelligence. While most new solutions are developed on the same basic and similar platforms, OBS Medical has broken new ground with its innovative approach to vital sign interpretation. Its safety suite not only helps detect abnormalities earlier but also nearly eliminates false-positives produced by individual vital sign monitoring.

"Unlike the traditional monitoring algorithms, the Visensia(R) is not a one-size-fits-all application; it personalizes patient monitoring by evaluating the 'normal' thresholds for individual patients the and Visensia(R) Index against pre-measured normal thresholds," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Mike Arani. "The addition of this innovative solution to any monitored unit will greatly boost alarm integrity and timeliness."

Alarming facilitates centralized monitoring by alerting clinicians to the patients that require immediate care. Low alarm integrity could compromise clinical workflow and efficiency. Therefore, hospitals seek monitoring solutions that can enhance alarm accuracy and confidence in critical care applications.

There has been a growing trend in patient monitoring alerting systems to implement "secondary" alarm notifications generated at the central stations. These alarms are based on preconfigured algorithms, wherein an alert is sent to the rapid response team (RRT) when the alarm conditions are met.

Clinical trials of the Visensia(R) suite have proven that approximately 95 percent of the alerts generated by Visensia(R) were true. Moreover, Visensia(R) VitalAlert(TM) has detected 100 percent of severe clinical deterioration (requiring MET/RRT call) with a mean advanced warning of 6.3 hours.

"The Visensia(R) Hospital Patient Safety Suite can be integrated with any patient monitoring solution in the market," notes Arani. "It can collect and analyze all five vital parameters from conventional bedside or telemetry monitors, thus enhancing the hospital's existing monitoring system without the need for costly upgrades."

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated technological innovation within its industry. This Award recognizes the ability of the company to successfully develop and introduce new/disruptive technology, formulate a well-designed product family, and make significant technology contributions to the industry.

Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About OBS Medical

OBS Medical delivers life-saving insight through its innovative clinical solutions for safer hospitals, safer patients and safer drugs. Based on intelligent algorithms such as neural networks, data fusion and waveform recognition, these technologies cover a range of medical applications including automated early crisis warning (Visensia(R)) and efficient cardiac safety for pharmaceutical research and development (BioQT(TM)). OBS Medical is in Carmel, Indiana and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oxford BioSignals Ltd. based in Oxford, UK, which was originally spun out from Oxford University.

     Contact:
     Meredith Formsma
     317.819.3950
     meredith.formsma@obsmedical.com

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership(TM) empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 30 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan's Growth Partnership Services, visit http://www.awards.frost.com.

     Contact:
     Jake Wengroff
     210.247.3806
     jake.wengroff@frost.com