Starting with four engineers in 1986, Nonin Medical set out to make noninvasive medical monitoring equipment. The Plymouth-based company has proven its skill at innovating, setting the standard for small, portable, and less expensive medical devices for monitoring patients’ health. Today Nonin has 230 employees, eight product families, and many awards, including Bluetooth’s Best of the Consumer Electronics Show in 2009 and two Tekne awards from the Minnesota High Tech Association: Best Medical Technology and Technology Executive of the Year for founder and CTO Phil Isaacson.
Q: How did Nonin get started?
A: I’m one of four founders, and we came from another medical device company. We started in my basement developing an oximeter with some innovative circuitry that made it more efficient and smaller. When we started, pulse oximeters had a 20-pound box and sold for $6,000. We developed a two-pound box that sold for $3,000. Now our smallest pulse oximeter is self-contained and sells for a couple hundred dollars. We’ve been the leader in miniaturization and we were the first to come up with a handheld oximeter in 1990.
Q: What does a pulse oximeter do?
A: It measures oxygen saturation in the arterial blood. Right now, an anesthesiologist will not do a procedure without a pulse oximeter on the patient. Before, they had one of the highest malpractice rates; with oximetry they pay one of the lowest rates. Now pulse oximeters are quite ubiquitous. I was watching “Nova” one night, and it was about people climbing Mount Everest. A climber pulled out one of our oximeters to check his oxygen. That was pretty neat.
Q: What is Nonin focusing on currently?
A: We’re getting into regional oximetry, which measures oxygenation in the tissue under the sensor. The first application we’re targeting is a cerebral oximeter, which monitors the oxygen in the brain. This is very important for cardiac surgery, where they stop the heart and have the patient on a bypass machine. There is no pulse, so a pulse oximeter won’t work. But it’s important to know if the brain is receiving adequate oxygen. We’re looking at other applications, too, like sports, for monitoring individual muscles.
Q: Which Nonin product received the CES and Tekne Awards?
A: Our Onyx II fingertip pulse oximeter with Bluetooth won. In addition to monitoring the patient, it can transmit the data securely to another device like a cell phone, PDA, or PC. Patients that are being monitored at home can take a reading and send it in to the doctor to review. We’re the first company to have a medical device that meets all of the standards for medical devices using Bluetooth.
Q: What have been Nonin’s keys to success?
A: Three things are required: guts, luck, and skill. If you don’t have the guts to give it a try, it’s not going to happen at all. And sometimes I say it’s better to be lucky than good. We decided to pursue pulse oximetry at a time just before it really blossomed. We had innovative technology and the skills, but were we were fortunate enough to apply them in an area that had great need. Pulse oximetry has been around since the 1940s, but we had some innovative designs at the right time and the right place. Nonin is a technology-driven company where we find a need and then extend it to other markets. We have veterinary versions of our pulse oximeters, and others for pilots, sports, home care, ambulances, ERs, and hospital wards.
Q: What’s next for Nonin?
A: Regional oximetry will be a major part of our future — it’s really taking off now and there are a tremendous number of applications for it. Over the next 10 years the uses and needs for that will grow dramatically, so cerebral oximetry will be a small part of the regional oximetry business. The other area we’re going for is e-health. That is really going to evolve as demands for medical care overwhelm the capacity of the current system, with people living longer and needing more health care. People will have to start taking responsibility for their own health care in more way than they do now.
Here’s a funny example: The father of one of our employees has COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). He was explaining to his pulmonologist that he uses his pulse oximeter on the golf course to adjust his oxygen flow. The patient is telling the doctor how to use the device — he’s taking control of his own health care. At Nonin, our main thing is improving the quality of life for many people, and that’s the part I’m excited about.
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