In 1991, a team of highly skilled engineers and clinicians from various disciplines began development of a new system for measuring blood pressure. Their goal was to develop a system that was non-invasive, as accurate as an indwelling catheter, measured continuously and did not require calibration. This team and their goal formed the nucleus for the company that is Medwave.
Medwave's team of engineers and clinicians began their task by researching all previous efforts to measure blood pressure non-invasively. One by one, each of these technologies was evaluated and rejected. This led the team to begin to think about the problem in a new way: to measure arterial waveforms and calculate blood pressure from these measurements. This approach met all the teams original goals, and from it the Vasotrac® system emerged. Numerous patents have been, and continue to be, issued to Medwave based on the development of this new technology.
Early in 1995 the Vasotrac system received FDA clearance for market. Sales to selected hospitals throughout the Midwest provided valuable experience using the system in clinical practice. In early 2000, the company began its commercialization phase by entering into numerous distribution agreements. Currently the company has distribution established in more than 20 countries.
Since early 2000, with a combination of direct sales professionals and distribution agreements covering most of the United States, Medwave has continued to expand its presence in a variety of sales channels.
Throughout 2001 and 2002, the company introduced several enhancements to its technology. Pediatric capabilities, interfacing into larger patient monitoring platforms, and the ability to function well in difficult clinical environments has allowed Medwave to sell into areas such as Pediatrics, Bariatrics, Critical Care, Cardiology, Emergency Departments, Women's Health, and the EMS environment.
Several prominent medical centers have adopted Medwave's technology and have found dramatic improvements such as A-line (invasive catheter) reduction, enhancement of patient comfort, and the ability to monitor difficult patients, all clinical benefits not found with conventional non-invasive technology.