How Medtronic’s Respiratory Interventions answered the COVID-19 call, the lessons that will guide it going forward
A year ago, the emerging pandemic brought Medtronic’s respiratory business front-and-center as demands for ventilators shot up to save the lives of thousands of people hit with COVID-19. In this interview, the first of the MedtronicTalks Podcast Series, Medtronic’s Ariel Mactavish and Dr. John de Csepel detail how Medtronic answered the call in many ways. MacTavish, president of the company’s Respiratory Interventions Operating Unit at Medtronic, said Medtronic quickly realize they couldn’t work alone. “We scaled as rapidly as possible internally with our own manufacturing facilities, but we also worked with partners to try to expand different areas of by sharing our ventilation IP, allowing others to manufacture it, giving good advice to others, to try to ramp that up,” she says in this interview. Meanwhile, Dr. Csepel, chief medical officer and vice president of medical affairs of Medtronic’s Americas region, recalled his own experiences in the New York City hospital where he serves as a general surgeon on weekends. “What I saw there was a transformation like I hope I never see again for the rest of my life,” de Csepel said, recalling that the hospital had to set up several ICUs that he had a hand in running. de Csepel drew on that experience to help formulate Medtronic’s response to the pandemic, including developing a plan to care for employees. Hear how Medtronic is taking lessons learned from last year to guide respiratory interventions going forward.
