Masimo Corp. in Irvine now sells its MightySat pulse oximeter in about 100 Apple stores and on Apple.com.
It previously had been available only online at a roster of websites that include Amazon.com and Walmart.com.
Masimo makes patient-monitoring devices used in hospitals. The MightySat is a health and wellness monitor that’s intended to give the general population a version of the company’s MightySatRx, which is used by medical personnel.
The device maker doesn’t break out sales by product line, but Paul Jansen, Masimo vice president of business development, said it has sold “thousands” of the consumer version worldwide since online sales started.
The unit sells for $300—four times more than one other pulse oximeter on Apple.com and nine times higher than competing pulse oximeters on other sites.
Jansen said its quality is the reason.
“It makes medical-grade technology available to the consumer,” he said.
Masimo said “signal extraction technology” enables better oxygen saturation monitoring for bodies in motion.
The product dovetails with a wider trend toward wearable fitness devices that address average users’ desire to monitor more kinds of health data.
Data can be downloaded to both the Masimo and the Apple Health smartphone apps.
Similar technology based on other Masimo devices could be developed by the company.
Masimo founder and Chief Executive Joe Kiani also has launched another company—Cercacor Laboratories Inc. in Irvine—that earlier this year debuted a portable hemoglobin monitor, Ember, at the CES consumer electronics show in Las Vegas.
VC Takes Glaukos Space
Fjord Ventures LLC in Laguna Hills will take office space previously occupied by Glaukos Corp., which is moving to San Clemente.
Fjord is a healthcare venture capital investor run by Olav Bergheim. Glaukos makes medical devices to treat glaucoma. Bergheim is a founder and former board member of Glaukos.
Fjord will take over the device maker’s lease when it ends Sept. 30; Glaukos will sublease part of the space through March 31 as it fills its new headquarters and manufacturing space farther south.
Glaukos’ lease in San Clemente is about 38,000 square feet; it had 24,000 square feet in Laguna.
Bergheim formed Fjord in 2006 when he left Domain Associates LLC in Laguna Niguel, which then moved to San Diego County.
Fjord has maintained a low profile and an eclectic portfolio. Its website lists eight portfolio companies, including one it sold its stake in five years ago. The areas of focus range from diabetes to dental, with cardiac, ophthalmology, and gene-based work represented.
At least half of the firms—Metronom Health Inc., Sonendo Inc., Prelude Corp., Adagio Medical Inc.—are listed at Fjord’s address in Laguna Hills, making the VC also something of an incubator.
Fjord’s website calls the company a “‘melting pot’ where novel medical concepts [are] created.”
Smiles, Clouds
Healthy Smiles for Kids added a “tele-dentistry” component to its mobile dental services for children.
The nonprofit helps 100,000 kids a year at clinics in Garden Grove, Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange, and two mobile units.
The mobile units offer basic dental care at schools that includes cleanings and X-rays. Healthy Smiles added virtual link-ups with OC dentists to get kids more consistent care.
The units will go to schools weekly—so far Danbrook Elementary in Anaheim and Wilson Elementary in Santa Ana are on the chart—until any students who need care get seen. Materials are sent electronically to local dentists who follow up with families.
“Preventative services early in children’s lives inhibit the initiation of dental disease and provide a lifetime of benefits,” said Healthy Smiles Chief Executive Ria Berger in a statement.
The electronic “tele-dentistry” part comes via the Virtual Dental Home program at University of the Pacific’s Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco, launched by Dr. Paul Glassman, a professor there.
Bits & Pieces
CHOC Children’s Heart Institute in Orange named Ryan Hansen director. Hansen comes from his role as director of hospital operations for one of three heart and vascular institutes at Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, a 14-hospital chain. He replaces the interim director, Melanie Patterson, who leads CHOC’s Cancer Institute. The previous director at the heart institute was Leslie Rabbitt, who left in 2013 to direct a children’s hospital heart center in Kansas City, Mo. … OCTANe in Aliso Viejo set the agenda for its 11th Annual Medical Device and Investor Forum from Oct. 27-28 in Irvine. Topics, panels and presentations include big data, internet security, legislation, funding and exit strategies, reimbursement and marketing. OCTANe is a life sciences technology accelerator.
