In 2003, Zephyr was founded in
New Zealand to help develop remote monitoring technologies to address the needs of coaches and athletes in their training. Zephyr's engineers learned early on that there were particular challenges that such systems faced - many of which were the same as those faced by
first responders and
military personnel. Early and ongoing collaboration with fire departments,
NASA Ames Research Center, National Guard Civil Support Teams, and multiple U.S. Special Forces units have allow Zephyr to develop its BioHarness and OmniSense software, which are capable of monitoring up to 50 test subjects at ranges of up to 1000 ft. In 2010, Zephyr's BioHarness and OmniSense system were used to remotely monitor the health and medical status of miners trapped during the
2010 Copiapó mining accident near
Copiapó,
Chile. In 2011,
Under Armour partnered with Zephyr to monitor athletes during the 2011
NFL Scouting Combine. In 2012, Zephyr testified to
United States Congress on behalf of
NASA. In 2013, Zephyr has partnered with organizations including
Massachusetts General Hospital, the
National Institutes of Health,
Qualcomm,
Verizon Wireless, and
3M to develop and launch ZephyrLIFE - one of the first commercially available comprehensive remote patient monitoring systems for general care monitoring. In 2014,
Covidien (ex Tyco Health) purchased Zephyr. Zephyr has continued to sell products in its three areas of consumer, Pro Sports, Defense and Healthcare. In Feb 2015,
Medtronic (
ticker MDT) purchased Covidien forming the largest medical device company in the world. The acquisition was valued at $42.9 billion in cash and stock. ==References==