Masimo has announced that in response to the Zika virus and its potential impact on the availability of blood products, Masimo is creating a special program to dramatically reduce the cost of and increase access to Masimo’s continuous hemoglobin monitoring (SpHb®) solutions, shown to help clinicians reduce blood transfusions in both low and high blood loss surgery. This special program will be available wherever the blood supply is affected by the Zika virus.
Masimo’s special program will allow clinicians and institutions in areas affected by the Zika virus to obtain a 50% discount off the list price of non-invasive SpHb sensors, and in addition, will make a limited number of loaner SpHb monitoring devices available at no cost during this special program.
Joe Kiani, Founder and CEO of Masimo, stated, “Because of how the Zika virus is transmitted, the FDA has recently recommended that the existing blood supply be tested for the virus, in addition to adding Zika screening for new blood donations. While this additional testing is necessary, it may constrain supplies of usable blood products while also increasing the cost of blood for a period of time. Masimo wants to do its part to help clinicians and healthcare facilities mitigate these issues by dramatically reducing the price of and increasing access to our SpHb monitoring solutions, which permit continuous, real-time visibility to changes in hemoglobin levels to help clinicians facilitate more informed and timely transfusion decisions. Independent, published studies completed by different researchers on three continents (US1, Egypt 2, Japan 3) have shown that SpHb may help clinicians reduce blood transfusions during different types of surgery*.”
“We believe the use of continuous SpHb monitoring can help reduce demand for donated blood and the risk posed by blood donated before the additional testing, which may be infected,” Mr. Kiani added. “In addition,Masimo will expand its ongoing efforts to increase awareness of the transfusion reduction benefits of the multidisciplinary pillars of Patient Blood Management, including the importance of pre-operative screening and therapies to safely increase patients’ hemoglobin levels before elective surgery 4.”
*Clinical decisions regarding red blood cell transfusions should be based on the clinician’s judgment considering, among other factors: patient condition, continuous SpHb monitoring, and laboratory diagnostic tests using blood samples.
References
- Ehrenfeld JM et al. J Blood Disorders Transf. 2014. 5:9. 2.
- Awada WN et al. J Clin Monit Comput. 2015 Feb 4.
- Imaizumi et al. Continuous and noninvasive hemoglobin monitoring may reduce excessive intraoperativeRBC transfusion. Proceedings from the 16th World Congress of Anaesthesiologists, Hong Kong. Abstract #PR607.
- Meybohm P et al. Patient Blood Management is Associated With a Substantial Reduction of Red Blood Cell Utilization and Safe for Patient’s Outcome. Ann Surg. 2016;264:203-211.
Source & Image Credit : Masimo
