Patient safety: Q&A with Masimo founder Joe Kiani

January 14, 2013 by Arezu Sarvestani

Healthcare companies are running out of reasons to keep their data behind closed doors, according to Masimo (NSDQ:MASI) founder & CEO Joe Kiani.

The technology needed to enable transparency is already here, so it comes down to a matter of leadership, he told attendees during the Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit spearheaded by Masimo's Foundation for Ethics, Innovation & Competition in Healthcare, which took place in Laguna Beach, Calif., yesterday and today.

"I'm not any less guilty than my colleagues, who are all hoping that we'll take advantage of our own data in a way that will be very profitable," Kiani told MassDevice.com at the close of Sunday's presentations. "I think we're waking up to say, 'You know what, while we haven't thought about how to make money out of that, patients are dying.'"

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Kiani told us about the spirit of openness, the opportunity for healthcare to catch up with other industries in terms of information innovation, and some of the motivators behind the push for better patient safety – including the death of a 12-year-old boy.

MassDevice: Given the importance of integrated medical device data in the interest of patient safety, why has it taken so long for medtech companies to open up their data and work toward integration?

Joe Kiani: I really think people were hiding behind standards. It was a good thing to say, "We'll wait until the standards are fixed for us to begin sharing data." Just like me, I'm not any less guilty than my colleagues, who are all hoping that we'll take advantage of our own data in a way that will be very profitable. And I think we're finally waking up to say, You know what, while we haven't thought about how to make money out of that, patients are dying, people are getting harmed.

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