SAN DIEGO and SOLANA BEACH, Calif./Nov. 4, 2002 - Comerica (NYSE: CMA), a leading financial services company, and Bridge Medical, Inc., a Southern California patient safety company, announced today that Comerica's Technology and Life Sciences Division has provided Bridge with a $2.3 million line of credit.
"We are pleased to begin this new banking relationship with Bridge Medical, which has the admirable mission of enhancing patient safety in healthcare facilities with technology solutions," said Chris Woolley, senior vice president and managing director of Comerica's Pacific Southwest Technology and Life Sciences Division. "Our San Diego team is very familiar with the challenges faced by life sciences and information technology companies, and we have the resources to meet their financial needs at all stages of their lifecycles."
Since 1999, Bridge Medical has provided its software and services to the healthcare industry. The company's award-winning MedPointTM patient safety software uses barcode-enabled point-of-care (BPOC) technology deployed on touch screen laptop computers or hand-held PDAs that interact with the company's server-based software though a wireless network. MedPointTM helps nurses intercept medication, blood transfusion, and specimen-tracking errors at the patient bedside. The Washington Post called MedPointTM "The most impressive, if disarmingly simple, piece of hospital-based error-busting technology."
"Comerica's San Diego team was extremely quick and responsive in crafting a credit line to meet our specific needs," said Terry Kinninger, Bridge's CFO and senior vice president, business development. "They proved that they understood our business and focused on the importance of the experience and credentials of the people behind it, including our management team, board of directors and investors. This credit facility supplements previous equity financings and will help us to continue to increase our market penetration, enhance our current products and develop new products that will make a very meaningful positive difference in the quality of healthcare."
About Bridge
Founded in 1996, Bridge Medical Inc. is headquartered in Solana Beach, Calif. Bridge has pioneered the use of bar coding at the point of care to prevent medication and other clinical errors. Close to 50 hospitals large and small including pediatric and teaching hospitals-have contracted with Bridge to deploy its MedPointTM patient safety software system. Many of these have been "live" for years and are now reporting on the safety results they have achieved at professional conferences and seminars around the world. On the Net: Bridge Medical site: http://www.bridgemedical.com.
About Comerica's Technology and Life Sciences Division
Comerica's Technology and Life Sciences Division is one of the nation's leading technology banking practices, offering a wide range of financial services tailored to corporate customers, entrepreneurs and professionals. Veteran bankers provide credit and financial services and products to young, growing, professionally backed technology and life sciences companies, as well as their more mature counterparts in the computer products, Internet services, telecommunications, life sciences and e-commerce industries. From 19 offices located across the U.S., Comerica's Technology and Life Sciences Division serves all major technology centers. Comerica is among the 20 largest banking companies in the nation, with $52.6 billion in assets.
Media Contacts:
Carol Somer
Bridge Medical
(858) 314-5538 or (703) 593-5786
csomer@bridgemedical.com
or
Adrienne Moch
Pacifico (for Comerica's Technology and Life Sciences Division)
(408) 293-8600 x319
amoch@pacifico.com
or
Keith Turner
Comerica Bank-California
(408) 556-5111
keith_turner@comerica.com
