About us
Elevating emergency care. Simply.
At Heartstream, we meet the full spectrum of urgent medical needs, delivering life-saving innovation where and when it is needed most. We strive to make working with us simple, smooth, and effortless for our first responders and partners worldwide.
For over 35 years, our monitor and defibrillator solutions have helped first responders, physicians, nurses, and lay users around the world save lives. Our proud legacy of innovation has impacted millions and revolutionized care for challenging conditions and vulnerable patients. This bold vision and commitment to the lifesaving mission inspires, focuses, and guides our team every hour of every day.”
At the core of everything we do is a deep respect for the people who rely on our clinical solutions — patients, physicians, nurses, paramedics, and EMT’s. By combining precision engineering with human-centered design, we are creating a future where innovative emergency care is affordable and accessible. From a good samaritan helping a neighbor suffering sudden cardiac arrest, to a professional rescuer making critical diagnoses in the field, Heartstream is dedicated to you, and all those ready to help when life is on the line.
ABOUT EMERGENCY CARE HOLDINGS
Emergency Care Holdings (ECH) is a platform developed by Bridgefield Capital to acquire and scale leading companies in the emergency medical products sector. ECH focuses on sharpening operations, accelerating innovation and expanding access to reliable, life-saving technologies used by first responders, health systems and communities around the world. For more information, visit www.emergencycareholdings.com.
ABOUT BRIDGEFIELD CAPITAL
Founded in 2015, Bridgefield Capital is a private investment firm led by Joseph Mathews and Richard Foster. Specializing in mid-sized companies navigating transitions or positioned for growth, Bridgefield has a proven track record of unlocking value and driving sustainable growth.
Bridgefield brings the resources, strategic insights, and operational expertise necessary to help businesses thrive as independent entities. The firm is particularly skilled in executing complex corporate carveouts, transitioning high-potential divisions from larger parent corporations into focused, high-performing operations. By supporting corporate focus, optimizing management practices, and executing strategic growth initiatives, Bridgefield consistently creates self-sustaining companies that deliver exceptional long-term value. For more information, visit www.bridgefieldcapital.com.
Over 100 years in medical device innovation
At Heartstream, our heritage is defined by relentless innovation, clinical leadership, and a mission to make lifesaving technology accessible, reliable, and easy to use for professionals and the public alike. Our roots go back over a century to the Sanborn Company, pioneers who laid the foundation for modern cardiac care. Decades of advancement in medical science, and an eventual acquisition by Hewlett-Packard, led to a series of innovations focused on improving care, where it’s needed most: from the first 12-lead ECG algorithm that enabled rapid diagnosis, to the first biphasic defibrillation waveform, which remains an industry standard to this day.
In 1998, Hewlett-Packard acquired the original Heartstream company, founded in 1992 by a group of entrepreneurial Seattle scientists who believed that the best way to improve survival for sudden cardiac arrest was to make hospital-grade therapy, available and usable by even untrained responders. This vision gave rise to the ForeRunner, the first modern Automated External Defibrillator (AED), as we know it today – which has helped deliver time-critical, lifesaving care to millions around the world. We pioneered pediatric AED pads and released our patents to the industry, ensuring that lifesaving therapy for children would be available to everyone, not just our customers.
As part of Royal Philips, innovation continued at a steady pace, marked by milestones such as the introduction of the first professional monitor with a high-visibility color screen, the MRx. Subsequent generations became progressively smaller, lighter, and more advanced, while maintaining our hallmark ease of use. This design philosophy led to the development of a portable defibrillator that received the first over-the-counter designation from the U.S. FDA, confirming it was safe for use by individuals without formal training, and making AEDs accessible in the places where sudden cardiac arrest most often occurs.
In 2001, as part of a strategic shift into healthcare, Philips acquired Agilent Technologies’ Healthcare Solutions Group. Over the next two decades, this Emergency Care-focused business unit within Philips launched seven new professional and public access defibrillator platforms, reaching over 3 million customers and equipping emergency responders to successfully resuscitate over two million victims of cardiac arrest.
Separately, in 1997, recognizing the unmet need for providing professional-grade emergency medical support to remote and austere environments, Remote Diagnostics Technology (RDT) was founded in the UK. Over the next 25 years, RDT launched a series of ultra-light, ultra-durable patient monitors equipped with state-of-the-art, encrypted wireless and satellite communications capabilities. In 2018, Philips acquired RDT, along with its cutting-edge solutions including the Tempus IC Telemedicine Monitor, Tempus Pro, Tempus ALS Monitor/Defibrillator, and Corsium informatics.
Meet our Leadership Team: Why we do what we do
Environment, Social and Governance
At Heartstream, we are driven by a single purpose: to improve health outcomes while building a sustainable, ethical, and inclusive future. As a medical device manufacturer, we recognize our responsibility not only to patients and healthcare providers, but also to the planet and society as a whole.
Patent marking
We take pride in developing cutting-edge medical technologies that are protected by patents around the world. These patents reflect our commitment to innovation, patient safety, and advancing healthcare. To view our complete list of patents, please visit our Patent Marking page.
