Masimo SET® Pulse Oximetry: Superior Performance, Worldwide Presence, Immeasurable Impact
Masimo SET® Is the Primary Pulse Oximetry at All 10 Top U.S. Hospitals, Monitors More Than 200 Million Patients a Year, and Has Been Shown to Have Unrivaled Accuracy and Reliability in More Than 100 Clinical Studies
Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) Signal Extraction Technology®, or SET®, pulse oximetry – industry-leading, clinically proven, and used by top hospitals everywhere – continues to overcome the limitations of conventional pulse oximetry and offers unrivaled accuracy through ongoing innovation. As of 2024, Masimo’s foundational SET® technology is now the primary pulse oximetry technology at all ten top U.S. hospitals,1 and is used to monitor more than 200 million patients a year around the world.2 With more than 100 studies demonstrating its ability to outperform other pulse oximetry technologies,2 SET® measures with industry-best SpO2 accuracy specifications4 – achieved with Masimo’s flagship RD SET® sensors – through challenging conditions such as patient motion and low perfusion, across all patient populations, and on all skin tones. With decades of expertise, Masimo is now able to make SET® available not only for traditional hospital bedside monitoring, but in tetherless sensors that promote freedom of movement, in wearable devices worn at home, in baby monitors, and in opioid overdose monitoring solutions – among many others.
Superior Performance
Masimo SET® originated in Founder and CEO Joe Kiani’s desire to find a way to monitor the oxygen saturation of those most precious of patients – neonatal infants – accurately and reliably, even though their frequent movement and poor perfusion stymied traditional pulse oximetry. SET® overcame those seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and Masimo’s continued innovation is driving significant accuracy and reliability milestones even today.
- Masimo SET® is accurate during motion. Before Masimo SET® pulse oximetry, false alarm rates were high,5, 6 often due to motion7, 8 and low perfusion.7 With Masimo SET®, the rate of false alarms dropped by more than 80% and yet true alarm detection improved significantly.7, 8
- Masimo SET® is accurate during low perfusion. A recent peer-reviewed study found that for Masimo SET® SpO2, ARMS* accuracy was “1.37% in all subjects with normal perfusion and 1.64% in all subjects with low perfusion.”9
- Masimo SET® is accurate on dark skin. A peer-reviewed publication using appropriately standardized sensor application sites demonstrated that Masimo RD SET sensors had only a 0.15% difference in bias between dark- and light-skinned subjects, which is not clinically significant because pulse oximeters only measure in whole numbers.10 Further analysis showed that RD SET accurately measured SpO2 for both Black and White subjects not only when perfusion was normal but also during low perfusion.9
Improved Outcomes
With its breakthrough performance, Masimo SET® made pulse oximetry a clinically useful tool. Prior to Masimo SET®, not one study had shown that pulse oximetry led to better patient outcomes, despite its ubiquity.11 Masimo SET® has had, and continues to have, a significant impact not only on the lives of innumerable patients around the world, from young to old, as numerous studies have shown, but on clinician workflows, hospital finances, and even the health of our planet.
- Masimo SET® saves lives. A study conducted over 10 years on general floor patients being monitored with Masimo SET® while recovering from surgery found zero preventable deaths or brain damage from opioid-induced respiratory depression.12 Another study has shown that use of SET® led to an 80% reduction in the rate of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP, an eye disorder that can cause blindness in premature babies).13 Of particular note, in multiple studies, involving more than 300,000 newborns, use of SET® as part of screening for critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) has been shown to significantly improve screening sensitivity.14-23
- Masimo SET® saves time. Studies have found that SET® generates 86% fewer false alarms than competitor technologies8 and that use of SET® to monitor general floor patients led to an approximately 60% reduction in rapid response team activations – without compromising patient safety.24
- Masimo SET® saves the environment. Use of Masimo SET® as part of a sensor management strategy that leveraged Masimo’s unique replacement tape offering resulted in a 60% reduction in the volume of single-patient-use sensors.25 And compared to traditional cable-based sensors, Masimo RD SET® sensors produce 84% less waste.26 Earlier this year, Masimo became the first pulse oximetry manufacturer to be recognized with the coveted “Greenhealth approved” sustainability seal of approval by Practice Greenhealth, for RD sensors.
- Masimo SET® saves money. Masimo SET® helped a hospital avoid $7 million in costs over 12 years through the use of a replacement tape sensor management strategy.25 At another facility, use of Masimo SET® to monitor med-surg patients helped clinicians reduce unplanned transfers to the ICU by approximately 50%.24 And, our calculations have shown that use of Masimo SET® and rainbow® technologies could potentially save a 250-bed hospital over $4 million annually.27
“Without SET®, there would be no rainbow® SpHb® or ORi™, no Hospital Automation™ products like Root®, Patient SafetyNet™, or Radius VSM™, and no telemonitoring solutions like Masimo SafetyNet® or Masimo W1®, among so many other achievements,” said Joe Kiani. “Masimo was established precisely to address the limitations of noninvasive monitoring – problems people thought were unsolvable until Masimo’s inventions! We are honored to be the choice of all top ten hospitals in the U.S., but we are far from satisfied. We are committed to continuously building on our legacy of breakthrough innovation and improving the lives of people everywhere.”
Learn more about Masimo SET® here.
