ATLANTA – St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE:STJ), a medical device firm, has agreed to invest $60 million in equity in Atlanta’s CardioMEMS, which has developed a wireless sensing and communication tech to assess cardiac performance.

The agreement provides St. Jude Medical an immediate 19 percent ownership in CardioMEMS and the exclusive option to acquire the company for an additional payment of $375 million during the period that extends through the completion of certain commercialization milestones.

CardioMEMS’ wireless monitoring technology can be placed directly in the pulmonary artery to assess cardiac performance via measurement of pulmonary artery pressure, a commonly used measurement to assess heart failure. The implant procedure, the company says, is fast, simple and can be performed by any physician who does right-heart catheterizations.

With CardioMEMS’ technology, doctors can obtain this critical information without the need for a cardiac catheterization. Patients can transmit these readings from their homes, and with this vital information, physicians can more effectively direct treatments to keep patients out of the hospital.

“Technologies that help improve the management of heart failure can not only provide meaningful benefits for patients, but can also do so in a cost effective manner that is particularly important given recent health care reform in the U.S. and the attention to health care costs worldwide,” said Eric S. Fain, M.D., president of the St. Jude Medical Cardiac Rhythm Management Division.

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Tags: Atlanta, CardioMEMS, equity financiang, Medical Device, medical sensor, PAP monitor, St. Jude Medical