SonoSite Begins Customer Shipments Of S Series Point-Of-Care Ultrasound Tools

Main Category: MRI / PET / Ultrasound
Article Date: 28 Dec 2007 - 0:00 PDT

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SonoSite, Inc. (Nasdaq:SONO), the world leader in point-of-care, hand-carried ultrasound, announced that it has begun worldwide shipments of its S Series ultrasound tools. Based on the company's fourth generation technology platform, the S Series product line combines the processing power, image quality and advanced data management features of SonoSite's newly introduced M-Turbo™ system with a customized user interface to address the specific needs of four clinical specialties.

"SonoSite is the only company that has designed a system that can withstand rigorous use in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)," said John M. Oropello, MD, FCCP, FCCM, Professor of Surgery and Medicine, Program Director, Critical Care Medicine and Co-Director, Neurosurgical - ICU, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York. "We evaluated a lot of machines and no one else has taken into account what critical care physicians need. Both the S-ICU and M-Turbo have superb image quality and are easy to clean-so essential to infection control. I can foresee the day when there will be an S ultrasound tool mounted by every bedside in the ICU."

Receiving one of the first S Series units shipped internationally is Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital of Perth, Australia. "The S-Nerve offers a sleek, elegant design with a very simple user interface," said Consultant Anaesthetist, Dr. Graham Hocking, MBChB, DMCC, FRCA, FFPMANZCA. "My students were finding their way around it in no time, freeing all of their concentration for scanning."

The S Series product line includes the S-FAST™ for emergency medicine physicians, the S-Nerve™ for anesthesiologists, the S-Cath™ for interventionalists and the S-ICU™ for intensivists. Like SonoSite's M-Turbo system, which the company began shipping on December 5, the S Series devices deliver breakthrough image clarity and seamless connectivity for digital image export in a rugged, hand-carried product that can be mounted on a pole, wall or ceiling for zero footprint.

Formally introduced in October 2007 at medical meetings and congresses, physicians have enthusiastically responded to the following features of the M-Turbo and S Series products:

- Outstanding Image Quality - The M-Turbo system and S Series devices advanced processing power is 16x more powerful than its industry leading MicroMaxx® system, and utilizes the new, advanced SonoADAPT™, SonoHD™, and SonoMB™ technologies for dramatic improvements in image quality;

- State-of-the-Art Connectivity - SonoSite engineers worked with Texas Instruments to integrate its DaVinci™ technology and Microsoft to integrate its Windows Embedded CE 6.0 operating system for seamless data transfer and connectivity. Clinicians can export images easily from the new products to a USB storage device in standard PC formats-MPEG4 (H.264), JPEG, HTML and BMP-for review or storage on PC or Mac® computers;

- Unmatched Commitment to Clinical Education - The Education Key™ program, new with the S Series devices and the M-Turbo system, is a USB thumb drive that contains a combination of system operation video tutorials, application-specific video refresher programs that provide peer-to-peer instruction on how to perform specific exams and procedures, and an image reference library of application specific sonographic anatomy for comparison purposes;

- Designed for Point-of-Care Demands - Like SonoSite's earlier products, the M-Turbo and S Series, and their transducers are designed to withstand a 3-foot drop onto a hard surface, have sealed surfaces that can be wiped down with disinfectant and boot within seconds of a cold start; and

- Landmark Warranty - The M-Turbo and S Series products and transducers carry the same, unprecedented 5-year warranty that SonoSite introduced with the launch of the MicroMaxx system in 2005.

About SonoSite

SonoSite, Inc. is the innovator and world leader in hand-carried ultrasound. Headquartered near Seattle, the company is represented by ten subsidiaries and a global distribution network in over 90 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 over 600 people worldwide.

http://www.sonosite.com

Forward-looking Information and the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995

Certain statements in this press release relating to the market acceptance of our products, possible future sales relating to expected orders, and our future financial position and operating results are "forward-looking statements" for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of our management at the time the statements are made and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements are not guaranties of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on potentially inaccurate assumptions.

Factors that could affect the rate and extent of market acceptance of our products, the receipt of expected orders, and our financial performance include our ability to successfully manufacture, market and sell our ultrasound systems, our ability to accurately forecast customer demand for our products, our ability to manufacture and ship our systems in a timely manner to meet customer demand, variability in quarterly results caused by the timing of large project orders from governmental or international entities and the seasonality of hospital purchasing patterns, timely receipts of regulatory approvals to market and sell our products, regulatory and reimbursement changes in various national health care markets, constraints in government and public health spending, the ability of our distribution partners and other sales channels such as the physician office sales force to market and sell our products, the impact of patent litigation, our ability to execute our acquisition strategy, the effect of transactions and activities associated with our issuance of senior convertible debt in July 2007 on the market price of our common stock, and as well as other factors contained in the Item 1A. "Risk Factors" section of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, as updated by our most recent quarterly reports filed on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We caution readers not to place undue reliance upon these forward-looking statements that speak only as to the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

http://www.sonosite.com