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Dr. Michael Pedro, Vice President and Medical Director at Vyaire Medical

New Advisory Board to Share COVID-19 Insights

July 9, 2020

Vyaire Medical, the world’s largest healthcare company fully dedicated to respiratory care, is using its global reach to quickly disseminate vital information for the care and treatment of patients suffering from COVID-19 worldwide. The company has assembled a new Medical Advisory Board composed of about a dozen healthcare professionals from around the world. “We have about a dozen key opinion leaders in the United States and internationally that we reach out to on a regular basis,” said Dr. Michael Pedro, vice president and medical director at Vyaire Medical. The group launched a series of podcasts, white papers and research studies, all of which is published on Vyaire Medical’s COVID-19 Response Center. Topics range from best practices and protocols to product features and applications. There are 4 podcasts series already live at the site, with another 6 in the works. Each series has multiple episodes. White papers and research studies are expected to appear in the coming weeks. Dr. Pedro said when the COVID-19 pandemic began Vyaire Medical knew it wanted to do something to get information to the front line physicians, nurses, clinicians and respiratory therapists quickly. “It was pretty easy for us because we’re a global company with global reach,” he said. He added that some physicians interviewed early on have returned to provide updates as treatment protocols and learnings have evolved. “As new information comes out we’re able to disseminate it rather quickly.” For more information about Vyaire’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, visit the company’s COVID-19 Response Center.

New COO Focusing on Present, Looking Toward Future

July 7, 2020

Normally, joining a company to oversee more than half of its worldwide employees is a big challenge. Add a global pandemic to the mix and suddenly that task is amplified tremendously. John Elwood joined Vyaire Medical as chief operating officer May 25, after 12.5 years at KCI, a wound care company based in San Antonio, TX. At Vyaire Medical, Elwood's global operations team comprises more than 4,000 of the company's approximately 6,000 employees worldwide. But even more than the number of employees, Elwood's team touches virtually every aspect of Vyaire Medical's business, from supply chain planning, manufacturing, engineering and from shipping to regulatory compliance. The benefit of overseeing so many moving parts, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak, is that you can streamline communications to ensure everyone is working toward the same goal. "It's really a broad scope. The beauty of that broad scope is that our global team is all aligned to our vision ‘Product is always available, achieved by best-in-class structure’,  Elwood said. "When I communicate to thousands of people, everyone in my organization can align with that statement. Everyone can easily explain how their role supports that vision. Elwood said the main focus right now is meeting the unprecedented global demand for Vyaire Medical's full product line. "Our business consists of the ventilators, the consumables that go along with every ventilator and we also have the diagnostics business," he said. "It's tough right now. It's an incredibly busy, yet exciting, time for the entire organization." And with all the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Elwood said he also has to think about the future. In order to remain successful, Vyaire Medical has to continue to innovate and develop the products to meet the evolving needs of a post-pandemic world. "We have our three franchises — ventilators, consumables and diagnostics. All three have research and development teams to understand what our customers needs truly are and develop new products to meet those needs," he said. And when the current crisis subsides, Elwood will then be able to focus on the "normal" aspects of his role. "When we get through COVID and stabilize, when I look at the wide span of global operations, we need to drive continuous improvement across every aspect of our business to turn our vision into reality.” Elwood added that even with the immense challenges ahead, he's glad to have joined the Vyaire Medical team. "Even in these times of remote working, it has been an easy transition for me. The team has been very warm and welcoming to me." For more information about Vyaire’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, visit the company’s COVID-19 Response Center.

Black Lives Matter

July 6, 2020

“I can’t breathe.” Like so many of you, I’m nauseated when I see the images of George Floyd’s murder—to watch the humanity and life be stripped from him as he struggles to say those words. “I can’t breathe.” America has a problem, and it’s a problem our society has collectively ignored for far too long. Systemic racism is real and for many Black Americans, they feel its effects daily. They face deadly consequences too often, due to the color of their skin, as the video from Minneapolis so horrifically illustrates. I’ll admit I’ve struggled with how to discuss this with you. I’m a husband, a father and your CEO, and I feel strongly that I would not be living up to my responsibility in any of these roles if I let this moment pass without saying systemic racism is real in this country and it’s time that we become more active participants to bring about positive and lasting change. I’d like to share with you four steps Vyaire is taking to put us on this path. Additional Resources: As an immediate step, we’re making reading and learning material available so that we all may have access to information that will help us better understand this issue and the steps we can take in our daily lives to be a part of a better solution. Formalized Learning & Development Courses: We are well on our way to building a new culture at Vyaire. That culture is going to be based on diversity and inclusion. I’m asking the Learning & Development team to create a mandatory and formalized curriculum that will chart a course for us in this area beyond what we are currently doing. Support for the Cause: In the coming weeks we will announce a donation to organizations working to promote social justice and inclusion. We’ll share more details later on, including how you can participate, if you wish. Expanding our Reach: The COVID-19 pandemic has shone yet another light on health disparities, as it disproportionately ravages communities of color. Today, I’m asking our general counsel Kevin Klemz to lead a formal, cross-functional team to examine ways Vyaire can attack these disparities, lending our expertise to further support disadvantaged communities so that we improve access to healthcare for all. These may seem like small steps, but they represent a significant commitment. Racism isn’t endemic only to America, and there are those around the world who seek to eradicate it. This week, people in London, Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris took to the streets in solidarity in what is quickly becoming a global movement.  Similarly, as a global company, we’ll approach this as one team because my expectation is that the character of our company be consistent everywhere we do business. I’m incredibly proud of Vyaire, the people who work here, and am humbled to be in a position to lead. Today, I add Vyaire’s voice to the growing chorus that unequivocally states that Black lives matter. It is my hope that you view what is happening in our country as a turning point and that you join me in actions that ensure we are building a more just society. There is a way forward, but we all must participate. Together, we can effect change and build a more perfect world. Gaurav  
Amy Ables, vice president and chief learning officer at Vyaire Medical

Learning Team Assumes Bigger Role at Vyaire Medical

June 30, 2020

Vyaire Medical associates throughout the company are taking on additional responsibilities in response to the global COVID-19 crisis in order to ensure patients are receiving the best treatment possible. Vyaire Medical's Training and Development team traditionally focused on three areas: sales training, employee development, and leadership development. But the COVID-19 pandemic meant the team had to expand its focus, not just beyond those three areas but beyond the company. "The strategy we embarked on for this was just-in-time microlearning for healthcare practitioners," said Amy Ables, vice president and chief learning officer at Vyaire Medical. "Our team pivoted fully to focus on customer training needs." For example, the Training and Development team created 59 customer-facing training experiences accessible through Vyaire Medical's website and the Customer Learning Center. The chapter-based information is designed to allow healthcare practitioners to consume the information quickly — in less than ten minutes — and effectively. "We didn't want to compromise the content, but we were very intentional with the time commitment so the information could be consumed quickly and clinicians could get back to their patients," Ables said. She added her team is working closely with sales and marketing to see where devices are being deployed so the information can be made available in different languages if needed. Ables' team also participated in the development of the Ventilation Training Alliance application, providing information on seven Vyaire Medical ventilators. As of early June, that app had been downloaded more than 43,000 times in 182 countries. Those efforts helped familiarize frontline healthcare practitioners not only with the Vyaire Medical ventilators they were receiving, but with mechanical ventilation in general. "There was a call to action initially for healthcare practitioners to come out of retirement or work in areas they hadn't worked in before," Ables said. "They weren't necessarily going to be familiar with mechanical ventilation." The team is working with non-medical personnel as well, including setting up training for the more than 700 people helping to manufacture ventilators through Vyaire Medical's partnership with Spirit Aerosystems. "We also have partnered with our service team to create service training materials and installation manuals to onboard and train new partners for installations," Ables said. Of course, Ables and her team still keep an eye on the internal training needs at Vyaire Medical. In recent months, her team has launched LTV2™ training for the acute ventilation sales force and clinical specialists; initiated new employee onboarding for the O2 program in Germany, Switzerland, China and Japan; and created 10 online modules to improve leaders' interviewing skill, to name just a few projects. But even the internal training and development efforts have taken on a new scope as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, Ables' team has developed training around safety and the use of personal protective equipment as well as signage for manufacturing sites and field employees. "The motto for our team is aggressive execution," Ables said. "We have to deliver. You play to win the game.” For more information about Vyaire’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, visit the company’s COVID-19 Response Center.

Vyaire Ventilators Have Direct Impact on Patients’ Care

June 19, 2020

Product features are more than just bells and whistles. The various functions found on Vyaire Medical ventilators provide doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists with the critical tools they need to provide the best care to their patients. Texas Health Resources (THR), which operates more than a dozen hospitals in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, recently purchased 100+ bellavista™ 1000e ventilators for deployment throughout the system. “For the last month and a half we’ve been going around from hospital to hospital to do the installations and training,” said Michael Hewitt, a ventilation solutions specialist with Vyaire Medical. That all changed, however, one day in early May when Hewitt received a phone call from one of the hospitals. It seems healthcare workers were having difficulty hearing the alarms on the existing ventilators that would go off when a patient’s ventilation tube disconnected. This not only made it difficult for the healthcare workers to do their jobs, but also put the patients in a potentially life-threatening situation. As a result, the hospital decided to move forward with the installation of its five bellavista 1000e ventilators. Hewitt was called at around 11 am, and two hours later he and his team were on-site ready to transfer the hospital’s four COVID-19 patients to the new ventilators. “These were very, very sick patients, as people hospitalized with COVID are,” said Hewitt, who has been a clinician for 40 years. “We were able to transfer all four patients successfully and the ventilators have been performing flawlessly.” The hospital staff was pleased with more than just the louder alarms. The bellavista 1000e also has an Animated Lung Function, which provides breath-by-breath analysis of the patient’s condition. And, the large monitors on the bellavista 1000e ventilators enable caregivers to monitor the patient from a safe distance. Hewitt said it’s that kind of detailed monitoring that enables the doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists to provide their patients with the best individual care possible. People with COVID-19 “are probably the sickest patients that have been on these ventilators since they’ve been out,” he said, noting the bellavista 1000e started in Europe but is relatively new to the United States. “And, there aren’t the same similarities from patient to patient. They’re all different.” Needless to say,Hewitt is a big fan of the bellavista 1000e and the way it performs for both caregivers and patients. “I’m 66 years old. I didn’t retire because of this ventilator.” For more information about Vyaire’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, visit the company’s COVID-19 Response Center.
Sam Mannis is proud to be a member of the Vyaire Medical family and is grateful for the support she receives from fellow service representatives and others at the company.

Vyaire Medical Employees Form Circles of Support

June 10, 2020

Vyaire Medical employees have been doing whatever they can to meet the unprecedented demand for respiratory equipment for treating COVID-19 patients, not only expanding efforts in their normal roles, but also pitching in to help other departments. They’re also there to help one another. Samantha Mannis, a field service technician based in Iowa, has been spending more time in her car these past couple months than probably anywhere else. At one point, Mannis, who joined Vyaire Medical in November 2019, was covering a 10-state region and on the road four or five days a week, often driving as much as 10 hours one way to help a customer. “I’m home on the weekends, but that’s about it,” she said, adding she knew travel was part of the job, even if it’s currently a bit more than she originally anticipated. “Whether I’m going to Chicago or Wisconsin or Minnesota, it’s all about getting customers up and running with their ventilators.” Even with her upbeat attitude, Mannis says the workload can take its toll. “It can seem very isolating because you’re away from your family and sitting around in hotels.” Mannis said one thing that has helped has been the response from customers — whether it’s setting up special work areas that are isolated from patients or a willingness to reschedule an appointment so she can help another customer with a more urgent need. Customers “are making a lot of efforts to make sure everyone is safe and everyone is taken care of,” she said. She’s also getting a lot of support from her Vyaire Medical colleagues. “It definitely feels like Vyaire has a really great community of people looking out for you. It’s been amazing.” Her fellow service technicians have been particularly helpful. They’ve offered to send her spare parts that she’s needed and one, when she told him it was hard to find time to shop, even offered to send her toilet paper. “If you need something, or even if you just need to talk, whatever it is, it’s nice to have that kind of support,” Mannis said. “You can’t put a price on it.” For more information about Vyaire’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, visit the company’s COVID-19 Response Center at https://www.vyaire.com/Covid-19.
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