Dolphin Medical, Inc. and QRS Diagnostic Enter into Strategic Alliance
Medical Device Companies Protect Patents and Cross License Technologies
HAWTHORNE, Calif. and MINNEAPOLIS -- September 23, 2002 -- OSI Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSIS) and QRS Diagnostic announce that Dolphin Medical, Inc., a subsidiary of OSI Systems, and QRS have entered into a strategic alliance. The companies have agreed to cross license technologies in order to advance the development and marketing of affordable, high-tech medical devices that enable physicians to diagnose and monitor patients' medical conditions.
The alliance promotes three strategic objectives of Dolphin and QRS:
First, it reinforces that the use of PC Cards for measuring and monitoring physiological data is protected by QRS patents, which have now been licensed to Dolphin for specific use in certain markets.
Second, it enables Dolphin to leverage the QRS distribution channel for exclusive sale of its Pocket PC-based Voyager Pulse Oximeter to physicians. Under the alliance, QRS has exclusive distribution rights for the physician office market for Voyager. Dolphin will market the Voyager to other channels under its cross license from QRS.
Third, QRS can now take advantage of Dolphin's vertically integrated manufacturing infrastructure. Dolphin Medical will now manufacture the QRS line of PC Card medical devices.
"Our agreement mutually validates our patents and enables QRS to develop a strategic, long-term relationship with Dolphin, an established market leader in the medical device industry," says Bradley Sorenson, president and chief operations officer, QRS. "Our alliance gives both companies access to innovative, proven technologies for diagnostic testing and patient monitoring."
"QRS' patented technology builds the intelligence of physiological data acquisition and interpretation directly into PC Cards," says Dan Goldberger, president, Dolphin Medical. "The synthesis of medical technology and information technology is the key to the future of medical devices because it makes them mobile, upgradeable and reasonably priced."
The Dolphin Voyager is a pulse oximetry engine designed in the standard Compact Flash format. This card slides into any Compact Flash socket and, with the accompanying Dolphin ONE (Oximetry Noise Elimination) software, provides the user with a fully functional pulse oximeter. The Voyager is CE marked for use with the Compaq iPAQ 3600, 3700 and 3800 series Pocket PCs.
The Dolphin Voyager is a high performance, motion tolerant, low perfusion tolerant pulse oximeter in a portable package with the convenient compact flash format. It features real time display of patient waveforms and easy to use SpO2, pulse, and perfusion trending. With its unique voice annotation, Dolphin Voyager allows for easy storage of significant events, and it offers the ability to save and restore patient waveform, trending data, and voice/text annotations. Patient data can also be viewed on desktop PCs. Voyager includes a full alarm system with configurable alarm and pulse tones, and it is compatible with all Dolphin ONE sensors.
QRS PC Cards, with integrated sensors, slide right into the PC Card drives of desktop, laptop and Pocket PCs. This makes off-the-shelf computers work as fully functioning medical devices. Because they are software-based and integrate with standard PCs, QRS devices are readily upgradeable and highly mobile. In addition, QRS technology eliminates the need to purchase and support separate, stand-alone devices for several different types of diagnostic procedures, since a single computer can support all QRS PC Card devices. QRS offers PC Card medical devices for spirometry, pulse oximetry, combination spirometry/pulse oximetry, and electrocardiography.
About Dolphin Medical, Inc.
Hawthorne, California-based Dolphin Medical, Inc. is a vertically integrated provider of patient monitors and accessories with a particular expertise in pulse oximetry and respiratory gas analysis. The Company was founded as a majority-owned subsidiary of OSI Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: OSIS) in order to consolidate the internally-developed as well as acquired medical device businesses and technologies of OSI Systems under one umbrella (namely OSI Medical, Aristo Medical, and OSS Medical). With manufacturing facilities in Johor Bahru, Malaysia and Hawthorne, Calif., Dolphin Medical is the low cost producer of oximetry hardware and accessories. Additional information is available at www.dolphinmedical.com.
About QRS Diagnostic
Founded in 1994, QRS Diagnostic, Plymouth, Minn., uses innovative software technology to design and develop FDA-approved medical devices that simplify and reduce the costs of diagnostic testing and patient monitoring. With our patented PC Card technology platform, QRS turns standard desktop, laptop and Pocket PCs into modular, upgradeable medical devices and streamlines the collection and communication of precise physiological data. We enable primary care physicians to cost-effectively practice high-tech medicine while delivering the accuracy that specialists and hospitals demand. The affordability, durability and mobility of QRS devices also advance diagnostic testing and patient monitoring for disease management, home healthcare and personal health management. For more information on QRS, please visit www.QRSdiagnostic.com.
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QRS Media Contacts:
David Aquilina
612-922-5551
davidaquilina@msn.com
Amy Ptak
763-559-8492, ext. 949
amyp@QRSdiagnostic.com
OSI Systems Media Contact:
OSI Media Contact:
Sanjay Sabnani
310-349-2245
sanjay@typcap.com
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