St. Jude Medical (STJ: 38.86 ,0.00 ,0.00%) said Tuesday it paid $60 million to privately-held CardioMEMS to gain 19% ownership and the ability to exclusively buy the medical device company in the future.

The equity agreement provides St. Jude the opportunity to purchase the developer of wireless sensing technology used in assessing cardiac performance for an additional $375 million through the completion of certain commercialization milestones.

CardioMEMS’ wireless technology, which can be placed directly in the pulmonary artery to measure pressure and assess cardiac performance, is often used to evaluate heart failure in hospitalized patients.

“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.

The system is supported by clinical evidence, including the CHAMPION trial, which found a 38% reduction in the rate of hospitalizations related to heart failure annually.

“The results demonstrated the potential for hemodynamic monitoring to reduce the need for costly hospitalizations while improving quality of life,” CardioMEMS CEO Jay S. Yadav, M.D. said.