Medwave Inc has signed an agreement with Novation, the leading supply chain management company in healthcare, to offer Medwave's sensor-based blood pressure measurement solutions to the more than 2,300 health care organizations that purchase supplies through Novation. The one-year contract covers Medwave's Vasotrac and Vasotrax technology.

Based in Irving, Texas, Novation provides group purchasing services to health care organizations that belong to VHA Inc., a national health care cooperative, and the University Health System Consortium, an alliance of the nation's leading academic medical centers. Novation also extends its contracts to health care organizations that purchase supplies through Healthcare Purchasing Partners International, a group purchasing company that serves 5,400 health care organizations nationwide.

Tim O'Malley, President and Chief Executive Officer of Medwave Inc, states, "We are proud of the fact that we have been able to reach an agreement with Novation. We believe the contract will benefit Novation customers financially and clinically, as they will now have access to innovative technology that is a significant breakthrough in the non-invasive blood pressure monitoring market. This agreement affords Novation's customers the ability to monitor patients when a traditional blood pressure cuff will not work. In some cases, they will have the ability to reduce or eliminate invasive catheters in certain patients."