Encision AEM® Technology Acknowledged at Patient Safety Conference
Boulder, Colorado, June 20, 2005 -- Encision Inc. (Amex: ECI), a medical device company with patented surgical technology emerging as a standard of care in minimally-invasive surgery, announced excerpts from recent audio and slide materials from the ECRI (formerly the Emergency Care Research Institute) sponsored conference “Electrosurgery and Patient Safety: Critical Measures for Minimizing Risk.” ECRI is an independent nonprofit health services research agency.
At the conference, James Keller, MS, Director, Health Devices Group of ECRI listed “Best Practices for Active Electrode Safety” that included “consider active electrode monitoring for laparoscopy.”
Dr. David Armstrong, Chief, Colorectal Surgery at Atlanta Medical Center, spoke on “Physician Expectations of the Facility and Staff.” Dr. Armstrong stated, “One of the probably more deadly risks out there is the monopolar issue where the electrical grounding problem that can be avoided seemingly very easily with active electrode monitoring to prevent this capacitive coupling, problems with insulation breaks and inadvertent injury to bowel… a huge problem that’s underreported, a huge medical legal issue and, at the end of the day, it’s a patient safety issue. We all need to be aware of it.”
“Our goal is to elevate AEM Laparoscopic Instruments from recommended practice to patient standard of care. Continued endorsements from medical societies, medico-legal groups, patient advocacy groups and insurance carriers will assist in that effort,” said Jack Serino, President & CEO of Encision.
ECRI estimated an audience of up to 1,500 health care professionals attended the conference on-line. An interactive question, “Have any electrosurgical burns occurred at your facility in the past year?” was asked of the attendees. The results, as listed in the materials provided post-conference, were:
DON’T KNOW = 8.2%
NO = 41.8%
YES – ONE (1) OR TWO (2) IN THE PAST YEAR = 47.3%
YES – SEVERAL IN THE PAST YEAR = 2.7%
ECRI states that its mission is to promote the highest standards of safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness in healthcare to benefit patient care through research, publishing, education, and consultation.
Encision Inc. designs and manufactures innovative surgical devices that allow the surgeon to optimize technique and patient safety during a broad range of surgical procedures. Based in Boulder, Colorado, the Company pioneered the development of patented AEM® Laparoscopic Instruments to improve electrosurgery and reduce the chance for patient injury in minimally invasive surgery.
In accordance with the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the Company notes that statements in this press release and elsewhere that look forward in time, which include everything other than historical information, involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially include, among others, its ability to increase revenues through the Company's distribution channels, insufficient quantity of new account conversions, insufficient cash to fund operations, scale up production to meet delivery obligations, delay in developing new products and receiving FDA approval for such new products and other factors discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: Marcia McHaffie, Encision Inc., 303-444-2600, mmchaffie@encision.com