US-based medical device firm Masimo has announced that it is offering licences for rainbow noninvasive blood constituent monitoring in response to blood shortages due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
The company stated that rainbow licence will be available at no extra charge to hospitals who are currently using rainbow-ready devices.
Rainbow is a platform that enables continuous monitoring of 12 parameters, such as hemoglobin (SpHb), oxyhemoglobin (SpO2), and methemoglobin (SpMet).
Masimo claims that customers can purchase RD rainbow sensors at discounted prices. Available worldwide, the programme is intended to continue until the pandemic recedes.
SpHb offers real-time visibility to changes, or lack of changes, in hemoglobin between invasive blood samples—and has been shown to assist clinicians enhance patient blood management.
According to Masimo, SpHb is available on a variety of its Pulse CO-Oximeters, such as the Root Patient Monitoring and Connectivity Platform, Radical-7, and Rad-97, in addition to patient monitors from 25 other patient monitoring manufacturers, including Dräger and Philips.
Masimo founder and CEO Joe Kiani said: “Our goal is to make the biggest difference we can during this challenging time. This is our third initiative in the past four days to help clinicians deal with COVID-19.
“Many hospitals have seen the value of rainbow, and we hope every hospital can now benefit from proven rainbow noninvasive blood constituent monitoring technology,”
Rainbow can help Masimo customers better manage blood supplies with SpHb
In several studies, SpHb has been shown to help clinicians reduce blood transfusions.
Besides SpHb, the rainbow portfolio comprises SpMet, which assists clinicians noninvasively and continuously monitor methemoglobin levels in the blood.
The company noted that raised methemoglobin levels can be caused by inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) therapy, which is currently being investigated as a potential treatment for lung complications related with COVID-19.
By enabling clinicians to assess methemoglobin levels, SpMet may be an important monitoring tool during iNO therapy.
Recently, Masimo and University Hospitals have jointly announced an economical scalable remote patient management system, Masimo Safety Net, which is aimed to support COVID-19 response efforts.
