Congress Funds Walter Reed Expansion With VISICU

Business Wire, Feb 19, 2002

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

BALTIMORE--(BW HealthWire)--Feb. 19, 2002

--eICU to be Implemented Throughout Department of the Army--

VISICU, Inc., the innovator in remote monitoring and management of intensive care unit (ICU) patients, today announced a significant expansion of its agreement with Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC). Located in Washington D.C., WRAMC implemented the VISICU eICU(R) solution in late 2000. Following a successful pilot, Congress appropriated 1.5 million dollars to fund expansion of the program, which includes connecting multiple army hospitals to the eICU located at WRAMC. The VISICU solution helps to reduce medical errors by using a telemedicine network to connect ICU patients to a remotely managed eICU command center, staffed with intensivists that use VISICU's advanced software and decision support tools to provide proactive care. Current plans call for intensivist physicians located at Walter Reed to remotely manage critically ill patients at Fort Belvoir, Virginia and other bases within the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command.

General Harold Timboe, MD, Commanding General of WRAMC emphasized the importance of obtaining the funding to expand the VISICU program. "With this Congressional Appropriation Walter Reed Army Medical Center will now be able to leverage limited U.S. Army intensivists across multiple military hospitals. We will start with bases in the continental U.S., but we will ultimately be able to provide care to military personnel overseas, speeding the time to medical intervention and reducing the effects of casualties."

Frank T. Sample, VISICU President and CEO reinforced the opportunity that he sees for the company with the government. "We are very pleased to broaden our relationship with the U.S. military and Walter Reed Army Medical Center in particular and have every reason to believe that this partnership with the military has the potential of expanding to both the Air Force and Navy."

Colonel Tom Fitzpatrick, M.D., Chief of Critical Care at WRAMC, emphasized, "The Army is committed to deploying the most advanced technology possible to ensure the care of its soldiers, retirees and beneficiaries." Fitzpatrick added, "With the VISICU eICU we can provide an electronic care network that includes video cameras, advanced software, decision support tools and telecommunication technology that permit real-time clinical evaluation of critically ill patients from a distant site. This technology will clearly extend our reach and improve clinical care."

About VISICU, Inc.

VISICU, Inc., a private company founded in 1998 by two nationally recognized intensivist physicians, is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. VISICU's remote care concept and advanced technology is revolutionizing the delivery of critical care medicine. A recent independent study of VISICU's unique eICU(R) care delivery proved that it reduces mortality and lowers costs while leveraging scarce intensivist expertise to more patients across ICU facilities. The eICU is powered by VISICU's eVantage(TM) technology which provides communication tools for instant eICU to ICU communication, Smart Alert(TM) proprietary software to enable earlier patient interventions and a decision support system called The Source(TM), for on-line evidence-based treatment guidelines. VISICU won the 2001 Healthcare Informatics and Technology Award and is currently the only ICU care management solution to enable hospitals to meet the Leapfrog Group's patient care safety standards. For more information please visit www.visicu.com.