Collaboration Begun in 2002 Expands BOTHELL, WA and BALTIMORE - November 30, 2005 - Sonosite, Inc. (Nasdaq:SONO), the world leader in hand-carried ultrasound, and the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center announced today that Sonosite will contribute $1 million over the next five years to the recently established Johns Hopkins Center for Innovative Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
Sonosite's unrestricted contribution, the first corporate gift the Center has received, will provide support for the Center's operations, general technology development, and research priorities, which include accelerating the adoption of clinical advances that improve patient care.
"Today, it is essential that academic medical centers, like Johns Hopkins, move beyond their current focus on disease-specific research to embrace innovation for the entire health system," says David Hellmann, M.D., chair of the department of medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and vice dean for the Johns Hopkins Bayview Campus.
"We believe that the intersection of technological innovation and teaching methods could revolutionize the doctors' "black bag." I have seen the potential of hand-carried ultrasound technology to change how medicine is practiced to improve the quality and efficiency of care delivery. We are thrilled by Sonosite's generous contribution, which will help us move forward in this endeavor. "A specific goal of the Center is to make hospital bedside examinations more accurate and efficient by utilizing new technologies," added Dr. Hellmann.
"Many of the deficiencies of the traditional bedside examination arise from a persistent reliance on a set of basic diagnostic instruments that has not changed in over a century. But technological advances have led to the development of more advanced, portable diagnostic tools, such as hand-carried ultrasound, that can dramatically increase the information a clinician can gather at the bedside."
"We are pleased to join with Johns Hopkins in their efforts to address and resolve the serious problems that confront health care today," says Kevin M. Goodwin, Sonosite President and CEO. "Sonosite and Johns Hopkins Bayview have a long-standing relationship and we are well acquainted with Dr. Hellmann's pioneering work with incorporating ultrasound at the point of care. A core founding principle of our company is that high performance ultrasound can be made small enough and cost-effective enough to provide clinicians the immediate answers that they need, wherever the patient is located, whenever the information is needed.
" A part of Johns Hopkins Medicine, Johns Hopkins Bayview has more than 700 beds and is one of the primary clinical settings in which residents from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine train. Johns Hopkins Bayview is among the first medical institutions in the country to expose all of its residents to the use of hand-carried ultrasound at the bedside. In September 2005, The American Journal of Medicine published the results of a study conducted by Dr. Hellmann and his colleagues to evaluate the rate at which residents learn to use hand-held echocardiography at the bedside. The results demonstrated that as a group residents learned important aspects of hand-held echocardiography at a reasonably rapid rate.
About The Johns Hopkins Center for Innovative Medicine
The Johns Hopkins Center for Innovative Medicine was established to bring the best technology to the bedside, to improve physician communication and teamwork skills, to accelerate the pace at which laboratory discoveries are translated into better treatments, to promote health by reorganizing the way care is provided and disease is prevented, and the development of innovative programs to support healthy aging.
About Sonosite
Sonosite, Inc. (www.sonosite.com) is the innovator and world leader in hand-carried ultrasound, with an installed base of more than 25,000 systems. Headquartered near Seattle, Sonosite 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 470 people worldwide.
Sonosite's unrestricted contribution, the first corporate gift the Center has received, will provide support for the Center's operations, general technology development, and research priorities, which include accelerating the adoption of clinical advances that improve patient care.
"Today, it is essential that academic medical centers, like Johns Hopkins, move beyond their current focus on disease-specific research to embrace innovation for the entire health system," says David Hellmann, M.D., chair of the department of medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and vice dean for the Johns Hopkins Bayview Campus.
"We believe that the intersection of technological innovation and teaching methods could revolutionize the doctors' "black bag." I have seen the potential of hand-carried ultrasound technology to change how medicine is practiced to improve the quality and efficiency of care delivery. We are thrilled by Sonosite's generous contribution, which will help us move forward in this endeavor. "A specific goal of the Center is to make hospital bedside examinations more accurate and efficient by utilizing new technologies," added Dr. Hellmann.
"Many of the deficiencies of the traditional bedside examination arise from a persistent reliance on a set of basic diagnostic instruments that has not changed in over a century. But technological advances have led to the development of more advanced, portable diagnostic tools, such as hand-carried ultrasound, that can dramatically increase the information a clinician can gather at the bedside."
"We are pleased to join with Johns Hopkins in their efforts to address and resolve the serious problems that confront health care today," says Kevin M. Goodwin, Sonosite President and CEO. "Sonosite and Johns Hopkins Bayview have a long-standing relationship and we are well acquainted with Dr. Hellmann's pioneering work with incorporating ultrasound at the point of care. A core founding principle of our company is that high performance ultrasound can be made small enough and cost-effective enough to provide clinicians the immediate answers that they need, wherever the patient is located, whenever the information is needed.
" A part of Johns Hopkins Medicine, Johns Hopkins Bayview has more than 700 beds and is one of the primary clinical settings in which residents from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine train. Johns Hopkins Bayview is among the first medical institutions in the country to expose all of its residents to the use of hand-carried ultrasound at the bedside. In September 2005, The American Journal of Medicine published the results of a study conducted by Dr. Hellmann and his colleagues to evaluate the rate at which residents learn to use hand-held echocardiography at the bedside. The results demonstrated that as a group residents learned important aspects of hand-held echocardiography at a reasonably rapid rate.
About The Johns Hopkins Center for Innovative Medicine
The Johns Hopkins Center for Innovative Medicine was established to bring the best technology to the bedside, to improve physician communication and teamwork skills, to accelerate the pace at which laboratory discoveries are translated into better treatments, to promote health by reorganizing the way care is provided and disease is prevented, and the development of innovative programs to support healthy aging.
About Sonosite
Sonosite, Inc. (www.sonosite.com) is the innovator and world leader in hand-carried ultrasound, with an installed base of more than 25,000 systems. Headquartered near Seattle, Sonosite 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 470 people worldwide.