Devices

 News Release - November 27, 2006

SonoSite MicroMaxx Wireless Capability Improves Delivery of Care at Toronto Hospitals

The MicroMaxx System's Wireless Connectivity, Extreme Portability, and Exceptional Image Quality Converge to Improve Care at Three Separate Emergency Departments

BOTHELL, Wash.--(HSMN NewsFeed)--SonoSite, Inc. (Nasdaq:SONO ), the world leader in hand-carried ultrasound, today highlighted the gains in patient care that Toronto's University Health Network (UHN) and Mount Sinai Hospital attribute to their deployment of a single MicroMaxx® hand-carried ultrasound system across three separate emergency departments. The MicroMaxx system is being showcased this week at the 92nd Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, being held at McCormick Place in Chicago, in SonoSite's Booth #4948.

A single on-call sonographer with a MicroMaxx system is able to provide overnight ultrasound services to the emergency departments at 256-bed Toronto Western and 471-bed Toronto General, both part of UHN, and the 472-bed Mount Sinai hospitals. With the MicroMaxx system's advanced wireless connectivity, the sonographer sends images as they are taken to a centralized picture archiving and communication system (PACS) in a radiology suite, where a radiologist provides real-time diagnostic evaluations to the emergency physicians. The MicroMaxx system has been programmed to work seamlessly across the distinct wireless security algorithms deployed by UHN and Mount Sinai, and automatically connects to the PACS network as the sonographer moves from department to department.

"With this model, UHN and Mount Sinai have created a flexible, cost-efficient means of ensuring that patients in the emergency department have access to ultrasound imaging services during the overnight hours, during which the hospitals' radiology suites do not operate," said Scott Jarrett, Administrative Director for UHN and Mount Sinai's Joint Department for Medical Imaging. "While we chose the MicroMaxx system for its exceptional image quality, its portability and wireless connectivity have improved our ability to diagnose patients who enter our EDs in the middle of the night. These attributes allow us to provide an additional, value-added service to the emergency department."

"Point-of-care ultrasound exams are now performed in the emergency department, where once overnight patients in the ED had to wait for radiology to re-open for an ultrasound scan," continued Mr. Jarrett. "Typically a sonographer performing a remote study would archive the images from multiple exams for a single download to the PACS upon return to the department. But the MicroMaxx's real-time wireless PACS connection allows a remote radiologist to read the images as they are taken and provide immediate feedback to the emergency physician, ultimately contributing to a faster, potentially life-saving diagnosis."

"This smart, creative use of hand-carried ultrasound underscores the unique convergence of exceptional image quality, extreme portability, and advanced wireless connectivity available in the MicroMaxx system," said Thomas J. Dugan, SonoSite's Senior Vice President for Marketing and U.S. Sales.

"And with its small footprint, light weight, fast boot-up time and long battery life," Mr. Dugan continued, "the MicroMaxx system is easy to move from patient to patient across three separate emergency departments, one of which is ten minutes away from the others, by car!"

About the MicroMaxx System

Weighing less than 8 pounds, the portability and high performance of the MicroMaxx system is rapidly changing patient assessment at the point of care in anesthesiology, emergency medicine, vascular access, critical care and even in the physician's office. A 5-year warranty on the system and most of its transducers is a standard feature which dramatically lowers the cost of owning a system in an industry that typically charges 10 - 15% of a product's purchase price in annual service contracts.

About SonoSite

SonoSite, Inc. (www.sonosite.com), the innovator and world leader in hand-carried ultrasound, is headquartered near Seattle and is represented by eight subsidiaries and a global distribution network in over 75 countries. SonoSite's small, lightweight systems are expanding the use of ultrasound across the clinical spectrum by cost-effectively bringing high-performance ultrasound to the point of patient care. The company employs approximately 500 people worldwide.

Source: SonoSite

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