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Strategic partnerships are an essential component of Aspect's strategy to accelerate monitor placements and acceptance of BIS technology. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are now integrating BIS technology into their patient monitoring devices and anesthesia equipment. Group purchasing organizations (GPOs) have signed contracts to provide their members with access to BIS technology. Leading medical equipment distributors are now promoting BIS technology with Aspect in the field. We continue our work with leaders in the anesthesia community through various professional societies. And, of course, we continue to nurture our most important partnership-the one with our customers. Partnerships with OEMs are critical to our strategy of penetrating the market and raising awareness of the benefits of BIS monitoring. By offering BIS technology in module form, these OEMs provide their customers with various patient monitoring parameters, including BIS, on one screen. Agilent Technologies will soon join Spacelabs Medical as a supplier of BIS modules worldwide. Agilent plans to launch its BIS module in the second quarter of 2001. Their U.S. sales network adds approximately 100 sales representatives and perioperative specialists to our own sales and distribution teams. Our other OEM partners, Datex-Ohmeda, Dräger, GE Medical Systems Information Technologies, and Nihon Kohden, have plans to introduce their BIS modules over the next 12-15 months. Together, these partners have an installed base of patient monitoring or anesthesia delivery equipment in approximately 90 percent of all operating rooms and ICU beds worldwide. In addition, Aspect has established partnerships with leading GPOs to ensure widespread availability of BIS technology. We have agreements with six of the leading GPOs in the U.S., and all but one of these are single source. Jirn Beyer, anesthesia product manager for Novation (a GPO that represents 30 percent of the nation's teaching and community hospitalsl, best conveyed the value these partnerships provide for members: "We consider the BIS system a revolutionary technology in the anesthesia discipline. Our partnership with Aspect provides our members access and training on the BIS system, supporting their efforts to provide patients with the most advanced, highest quality care." With our GPO agreements in place and OEM partners poised to play a significant role in the distribution of BIS technology, we believe we are well positioned to rapidly expand our installed base of monitors and modules, while increasing sensor utilization. Aspect has also partnered with the anesthesia community to support new, large-scale outcome studies using BIS technoIogy. These studies will be conducted in collaboration with major academic medical centers and professional societies around the world. They are expected to enroll more than 50,000 patients to document the quality of recovery, the reduction of post-operative complications, and the patient safety implications of BIS monitoring. This collaborative effort will include multi-center, multi-national, controlled studies to confirm the value of BIS monitoring in managing the risk of intraoperative patient awareness. These initiatives will further establish Aspect as a recognized leader in anesthesia research.