What role did Medtronic play in the fight against COVID?

The world has been facing an unprecedented human challenge with COVID-19 and this virus requires an unprecedented response. Globally, Medtronic has been mobilizing all of its assets to produce and distribute the products and therapies that can help COVID-19 patients and their caregivers. This includes ventilators, pulse oximeters, remote monitoring devices. We’ve not only increased the production and distribution of these devices, but we’ve also tied up with partners who can leverage our technology and design to help patients far and wide. We have been working directly with hospital systems and governments to get our products where they are needed most. In March 2020, Medtronic publicly shared the design specifications for the Puritan Bennett 560 (PB 560) ventilator globally. This enabled participants across industries and geographies to evaluate options for rapid ventilator manufacturing to help doctors and patients dealing with COVID-19.

During the second wave of the pandemic in India, Medtronic partnered with private and public organizations to amplify the provisions of ventilators. As part of the Global Taskforce which was established as a public-private partnership by the US Chamber of Commerce and supported by Business Roundtable, 1000 Medtronic Puritan Bennett 980 ventilators were shipped to India to be installed across the country including in tier 2 and 3 towns. Our frontline teams worked closely with the central and local authorities to install and train the teams in far flung areas across India. Medtronic has so far installed 700 out of the 1000 including nearly 200 in the north eastern parts of India. Tata also integrated Medtronic’s PB560 ventilators at its facility in Pune and distributed it to hospitals in Mumbai.

Apart from offering ventilators, Medtronic has also provided extensive assistance across all stages of the delivery process, which includes loading/unloading, site inspection, installation, remote support, user training, across India. 

How did Medtronic work with the local Government and policy makers to initiate deployment across India?

Medtronic partnered with government institutions such as NITI Ayog and DRDO to identify need gaps for ventilators in tier 1, as well as tier 2 and 3 areas. In coordination with key Government institutions and hospitals, Medtronic has been instrumental in supplying ventilators across the country, including the several locations in the Northeast. The ventilators were assembled and shipped to designated healthcare facilities for immediate use. The first set of ventilators were installed in the DRDO facility in Haldwani, Uttarakhand.

The pandemic saw an increased need for doctors, with many first-time doctors helping in the fight against COVID. How important is training and education in medical technology, especially with regards to vital technology like ventilators?

This is a global pandemic and it requires global solutions and no one company can address the challenges of this pandemic alone. To facilitate more ventilator supply, Medtronic had open-sourced ventilator production last year and has also been collaborating since then with companies in other industries to facilitate different aspects of ventilator production. However, we realized early on that by just sharing design specifications or by supplying ventilators we were only addressing half the problem. Training the healthcare workers to use the technologies was an equally critical aspect to hasten access to treatment for COVID patients. 

Medtronic also partnered with other leading ventilator manufacturers to launch the Virtual Training Alliance (VTA) Application with training resources like instructional how-to videos, manuals, troubleshooting guides, and other ventilator-operation expertise critical to helping responders treat patients suffering from COVID-19-related respiratory distress. It is a centralized repository of ventilator training resources which can be accessed even when you are not connected to the internet.  

Our technical service team also has been aiding through a dedicated helpline for application support for enabling healthcare professionals to become confident in ventilator usage and troubleshooting. They have also been providing post installation onsite usage training to hospital staff, refresher webinars and remote support for ventilator management to clinicians across India.