COMPUMEDICS LIMITED – MEDICAL INNOVATION DIVISION UPDATE

novembre 21, 2006

Compumedics Limited is pleased to announce that its new technologies division, Compumedics Medical Innovation, has entered into an agreement with Scottish Health Innovations Limited (SHIL) to exploit a new technology developed in Scotland for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke.

COMPUMEDICS LIMITED – Medical Innovation Division Update
(Diagnosis and treatment of Stroke)

Tuesday 21 November 2006. Compumedics Limited (ASX code: CMP) Melbourne Australia

Compumedics Limited is pleased to announce that its new technologies division, Compumedics Medical Innovation, has entered into an agreement with Scottish Health Innovations Limited (SHIL) to exploit a new technology developed in Scotland for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke.
The arrangement is described in the following press release that will be issued today by Scottish Health Innovations Limited (SHIL).

ANNOUNCEMENT:
SHIL CROSSES GLOBE IN SUCCESSFUL
SEARCH BRINGING TOGETHER MEDICAL
PARTNERS TO DEVELOP KEY STROKE TREATMENT

‘21-thousand-mile-round-trip unites Borders physician and Melbourne healthcare experts to tackle effects of devastating illness’
Scottish Health Innovations Limited (SHIL) has teamed up Borders physician Dr Paul Syme and Compumedics Limited, the world-leading Australian developer and manufacturer of computer-based healthcare diagnostic technological products to develop a unique treatment for stroke patients.
Working with Dr Syme and Borders Health Board, SHIL has filed international patents to protect the innovation.
Dr Syme has developed a new ultrasound technique to identify and treat small vessel vascular disease. The technique is non-invasive, pain and drug free and involves placing a probe against the patient’s head and tracking the blood flow in small vessels in the brain to identify blockage due to clot.
The equipment employed for this unique technique is called a “Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography” (TCD) machine which can be used by the patient’s bedside.

Compumedics’ contribution will be through its Medical Innovations and DWL Divisions. The DWL Division produces transcranial and vascular digital Doppler devices with manufacturing based in Germany and will be central to the success of the project.
The Medical Innovations Division focuses on the development of break-out complementary treatment devices for Compumedics’ technologies and product lines.

Dr Syme explains:

“Stroke is a devastating illness which has a significant risk of death and survivors can be left severely disabled. This can result in loss of independence, earnings and self-respect, with depression a common consequence. My treatment aims at being a safe and effective way of reversing the symptoms and signs of stroke due to small vessel occlusion – currently thought to be responsible for at least 25 per cent of all acute stroke caused by a blood clot.”
“Small vessel vascular disease is almost universal with advancing age and is the commonest cause of vascular dementia which is one of the commonest reason for admission to a nursing home.” he adds.
A new ultrasound vascular signal identified by Dr Syme, which he has named ‘small vessel knock’ (SVK) represents reflected sound and movement of blood at the site of small vessel occlusion, which can occur in any region of the brain.
Patients report clinical recovery when the ultrasound beam is directed at SVK for around 15 minutes, and targeting SVK has been shown to result in recovery of all neurological signs and symptoms associated with stroke – including loss of power, sensation, balance, double vision, slurring of speech, vertigo, tinnitus, and most recently memory dysfunction. This benefit can occur even weeks after the event. Recurrent events do occur but respond again to ultrasound but in most cases the benefit persists following a single treatment.
Dr Syme is working with the National Stroke Research Institute of Australia and other groups in the UK to extend this work and produce external validation of the technique.

Benefit to the NHS

Stroke currently costs the National Health Service 5 per cent of its total budget and 6 per cent of the social services budget, with the main cost to the NHS the length of stay in hospital. Stroke and dementia are the commonest reasons for a prolonged length of stay in hospital and the need for institutional care. Also, the predicted ageing of the population in the future is likely to increase the prevalence of both stroke and dementia because both conditions are strongly age-dependent.
Elaine Gemmell, SHIL’s business development manager covering the Borders, along with Lothian, Forth Valley, Lanarkshire, Dumfries & Galloway, and Fife, explains that Dr Syme’s treatment could be instrumental in reducing the cost of treatment and rehabilitation of stroke patients.
The finding of amnesia reversal using his technique has potentially huge implications for the treatment of vascular dementia, which is now considered to overlap with Alzheimers disease in up to 7o per cent of cases.
Current treatments for vascular dementia and Alzheimers disease may temporarily delay progression of these devastating illnesses but no treatment has been shown to restore memory in these conditions. It is Dr Symes’ intention to set up multiple trials to thoroughly test these findings.
“To our knowledge this is the first evidence that ultrasound can produce clinical benefit by opening small vascular occlusion. Dr Syme’s work has enormous implications and is a very exciting find,” Ms Gemmell says.

About Compumedics

Compumedics Limited, founded in 1987, is a global leader in the design and manufacture of diagnostic technologies for sleep disorders, neurophysiology and cardiology. In 1987 Compumedics established Asia Pacific’s first fully computerised sleep laboratory. Compumedics holds 80% share of the Australian sleep-diagnostic market, and has a major and rapidly growing presence in the US, European and Asian marketplaces for its sleep, neurological, and Doppler blood-flow diagnostic monitoring devices.
In 1995 the company was selected to supply equipment to the US Sleep Heart Health Study, the world’s largest sleep study of its kind, currently exceeding 12,000 studies with 20,000 patients scheduled by 2008. The company has corporate headquarters in Melbourne, Australia and offices in the United States, Asia and Europe.
In 1998 Compumedics was awarded the overall Australian Exporter of the Year.
In 2000 Compumedics was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
In 2002, Compumedics acquired US-based Neuroscan – the world’s leading supplier of instruments for brain-research. In the US – the world’s largest medical device market – Neuroscan hold around 90% of the market for brain-research products. This acquisition has enabled Compumedics to take advantage of the synergies between research and clinical-based Neuro Diagnostic technologies, re-affirming our commitment as a world-class developer of both sleep and neuro-diagnostic systems. In 2003 Compumedics was awarded the Frost & Sullivan Award for Market Expansion Strategy.
In 2004, Compumedics acquired German-based DWL Elektronishe GmbH, enabling Compumedics to expand its global operations into the neurovascular and cardio-vascular diagnostic fields.
Compumedics has grown to become a global medical diagnostic company with world leadership in three of the most exciting high-growth sectors and some 12,000 systems installed Compumedics businesses now include their core and pioneering sleep-diagnostics (Sleep Division), Neuro-diagnostics (Neuroscan and Neuroscience Divisions), and non-invasive blood-flow diagnostics (DWL Division). All of these fields were pioneered or discovered in the 1980s, validated in the 1990s and are only now undergoing rapid commercialisation into the rapidly expanding $1 billion plus global market.
The company has increased its sales more than 4 fold from $9 million (1999) to $38 million (2005), reflecting its continued commitment to an effective sales and R&D organisation.

For more information about Compumedics you can visit: www.compumedics.com

On behalf of: Compumedics Limited

Further Inquiries:

David Burton
Executive Chairman, CEO
Phone: +61 3 8420 7300
Fax: +61 3 8420 7399

Scottish Health Innovations Limited
elaine.gemmell@shil.co.uk
Phone: 0141 248 7334

Issued by:

Bourse Communications Pty Ltd
Rod North
Executive Director
Phone: +61 3 9510 8309
Mobile: 0408 670 706
www.boursecommunications.com.au