24 years of Experience

1985-1995 The Early Years
Ortivus was founded as Medical Invest AB in 1985. The purpose was to develop, manufacture and market a unique Swedish method for monitoring patients with ischemic heart disease (lack of oxygen in the heart muscle).The method was named MIDA (Myocardial Ischemia Dynamic Analysis), and was based on a Ph.D. thesis by Dr. Magnus Sederholm at Karolinska Institutet in 1984.

Preparatory and prototype work on MIDA was carried out at the Foundation for Biomedical Engineering (Stiftelsen Medicin & Teknik, SMT) at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg and at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The clinical development work was performed in close collaboration with Östra Sjukhuset in Gothenburg, Danderyds Sjukhus in Stockholm and Erasmus University Hospital in Rotterdam. In 1986 Ortivus established its office in Stockholm.

During the period 1987-1992, technical and product development as well as clinical validation of MIDA were completed. This resulted in around 50 clinical reports and five doctoral theses. In parallel with the development of MIDA, the complete monitoring system CoroNet including the MIDA algorithm was developed. CoroNet was launched on the Swedish market during the fall of 1992.

CoroNet became an immediate success on the Swedish market and as a result Hewlett-Packard (HP), the world's largest patient monitoring company at the time, became interested in collaboration with Ortivus. In 1994 an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) agreement for the European market was signed with HP, and in September 1995 this collaboration was expanded to become worldwide.

The first HP-MIDA system was produced during 1994-1995 and sales commenced in the European market in May 1995. The system was subsequently introduced in North America during the final quarter of 1996, and in Japan and other Asian countries by the end of 1996.
Ortivus' acquisition of Svenska Telemedicin System AB (STS) in 1994 gave an entry into the new market for telemedicine products. STS commenced its operations in 1991, and the main project was MobiMed. This project was acquired from the Foundation for Biomedical Engineering (Stiftelsen
Medicin & Teknik, SMT) at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg the same year.

MobiMed was a system intended for telemedicine and data communication in pre-hospital and mobile emergency care. MobiMed originated back in 1986 when the first tests trying to use the new mobile digital data network Mobitex for pre-hospital use were carried out at SMT. The first live prototype was tested in Uppsala County 1989, and the first completely PC-based solution, including dedicated PC:s in the ambulances, was introduced and tested in the same region in 1991. Soon after this new installations went live in Gothenburg and Lund. The latter included the first portable version, size of a briefcase, with a local radio-link to the vehicle based Mobitex-modem.

The first generation of MobiMed was developed and introduced during the period 1990-1994 and was mainly a fixed vehicle based solution, although a portable option was possible. The solution included vital signs monitoring, 12-lead ECG, telemedicine, chat, interface to Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) and a basic Patient Care Report (PCR). Among the first customers were, apart from the test and reference sites in Uppsala, Lund and Gothenburg, the counties of Västmanland and Dalarna. In all around 40 units were in service at the end of this period.

After STS was acquired by Ortivus the system was introduced on the Swedish market in a more planned and organized commercial scale starting from 1995. Sales of MobiMed in Sweden were successful during the years to come, and laid the foundation for today’s market leading position in Sweden and the first steps into the international markets Norway, UK and at this stage US

1996 - 2005 The Expansion Period
…. To be continued

2006 - To date Consolidation and Internationalization
…. To be continued