Raffi Stepanian
CEO, Breas Medical
The COVID-19 outbreak sadly brought the entire world to a standstill, leading to loss of lives and an unprecedented economic recession. Mechanical ventilators can be key to a patient’s recovery.
The government has called upon established manufacturers to build ventilators to support the NHS demand during COVID-19.
Ventilators have been, and will continue to be, distributed centrally by the UK government to the areas of the country that need them most.
Meeting the government’s ‘Ventilator Challenge UK’
Breas, for their part have increased output to supply the NIPPY 4+ and Vivo 65 devices as part of ‘Ventilator Challenge UK’.
Furthermore, there is a drive to find new solutions to shortages of other key items, such as the breathing circuit components and masks, which are required to go with the ventilators.
However, bringing large volumes of newly available equipment into any healthcare system does not come without its challenges, and medical device training is in demand.
Now, in a world of social distancing, people must find new ways of meeting training requirements head on.
Training medical staff online to meet staff shortages
Staff shortages were already a big challenge during the UK’s first wave of COVID-19, with the government requesting retirees to return to the frontline, and also hoping to upskill nursing staff from non-respiratory specialities who will need training to deliver the best possible care.
We must continually ask, can we do better by the ventilated patients from all walks of life, not just those that are presenting during these difficult times in a global pandemic?
Digital resources can equip all types of healthcare professionals with the techniques and training to fully understand ventilation, airway clearance, and respiratory care application, monitoring and management.
The Ventilator Training Alliance mobile application is one such example. Here, Breas have collaborated with many other suppliers globally, to help create an excellent base of resources on a whole range of equipment, not just the NIPPY 4+ and the Vivo 65.
Online training needs careful planning for optimum engagement
But training resources need to inspire trainees to think differently. Interviews with leading physicians in respiratory management, and technology-led articles, white papers, peer-to-peer discussions and workshops, are a great way to build interactions and engagement.
This is exactly the type of content that has been developed and shared on the Education by Breas website, an exciting new initiative which was launched in 2019.
Set up before the COVID-19 crisis, this website has now become a popular hub for a wealth of free information at this time, and not just for users of Breas equipment.
While some product information makes up a part of the website, sections around COVID-19, ventilation, airway clearance and patient monitoring are aimed at challenging current thinking and practice.
This level of training support can help medical staff upskill – and at pace – in order to help more COVID-19 patients overcome this tragic, global pandemic.
In the meantime, we must continually ask, can we do better by the ventilated patients from all walks of life, not just those that are presenting during these difficult times in a global pandemic?
People like David Kirby, the kind of patient Breas have aimed to support since their inception, will remain at the forefront of their focus, not just in the present, but long into the future.
Breas Medical are a respiratory company who design and manufacture ventilation and airway clearance products. They strive to deliver unique therapy solutions, that keep both the patient’s and the clinicians’ needs at the focus. They have collaborated closely with the UK government’s needs to supply large numbers of the NIPPY 4+ and Vivo 65 ventilators to the NHS.
