Covid-19’s impact on the med-tech sector
Lindsay Williams describes how Stryker Canada has adapted during the pandemic (690 words, 3.5 mins)
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Not to anyone’s surprise, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced companies in the med-tech sector to alter how they conduct business, according to Lindsay Williams, an executive at Stryker Canada. While Stryker has been forced to halt some of its business due to Covid-19, the company has used the downtime to retrain its employees and reallocate resources to focus on the pandemic.
Williams is the Vice President and Marketing Director at Stryker Canada a med-tech company specializing in the manufacturing of everything from knee implants and robots to assist surgeons with procedures to hospital beds and ambulance stretchers.
“Some of our business did come to a grinding halt during the pandemic,” said Williams (photo below) on a recent episode of the NPC Podcast, a program for Pharma executives hosted by Peter Brenders. Brenders is the General Manager of BeiGene Canada. (Listen to the episode here.)
“If surgeons were not performing scheduled procedures, if they were not doing a hip replacement, for example, they were not using our implants either. [As a result], we did a lot of educational programming as our sales reps and our clinical teams were at home instead of being in the field.”
The pandemic forced Stryker to pivot, said Williams. Early in the pandemic, to continue its support of surgeons, Stryker focused on remote technologies to continue the dialogue. The company was able use the communications-related equipment in its portfolio for field-facing staff to continue its work with healthcare practitioners, Williams added.
“Equipment such as large screens and imaging equipment can be used across different platforms,” she said. “For example, we might have had a teaching session where a surgeon was teaching their peers about new technology and there might have been five other surgeons viewing the procedure in an operating room. Instead, we found a way to videotape the teaching session and have 50 surgeons globally, watching that procedure and learning through it.”
While there have been challenges over the past year, Williams noted there have also been silver linings in terms of finding opportunities to connect with surgeons and other healthcare providers.
Stryker, which is headquartered in Kalamazoo, Mich., and has offices in Waterdown and Hamilton, Ont., was also able to allocate resources to Covid-19-related initiatives.
The company assisted with the creation of additional hospital beds in Canada and provided equipment such as AEDs and automated CPR devices for first responders. Additionally, the company worked with federal and provincial governments to allocate the products for first responders and helped governments deal with the PPE shortages. Stryker also equipped hospitals with sterilization technology for N95 masks.
“There were some ups and some downs, but we [are progressing] through the Covid-19 crisis with our health intact and our business is healthy,” Williams said.
The takeaway: Some of the downtime created by the pandemic has allowed Williams and her team at Stryker to focus on improving the company’s culture that she said drives its performance and ultimately tries to make health care better.
“We are building strong, diverse teams, that are talented at their jobs,” Williams explained. “We are investing in our people, surrounding ourselves with excellence and we are fostering a sense of belonging.
“I do think that culture drives performance—that when people feel supported, happy and fulfilled at work—they will deliver on their performance goals.”
Further reading: The med-tech sector isn’t the only one that had to alter its business over the past year. According to a Toronto Sun article, nearly one-quarter of Canadian businesses have had to pivot during Covid-19. Article here.
YOUR HEALTHBIZ WEEK 03/30/21
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UPCOMING NATIONAL PHARMA CONGRESS WEBINARS
The National Pharma Congress Spring Webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, May 12, 2021, and the Summer Webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, June 22, 2021. Be sure to watch the NPC HealthBiz Weekly for updates on the event.
CANADIAN HEALTHCARE MARKETING HALL OF FAME
The Canadian Healthcare Marketing Hall of Fame awards were established in 2002 to honour healthcare marketers who have contributed to our avocation and are an inspiration to others.
More than 100 honourees have been selected during the past 18 years. In the selection committee's view, they stand for a representative cross-section of the qualities that make our business unique and fulfilling. Each week, NPC Healthbiz Weekly will acknowledge one past Hall of Fame Honouree.
2018 Inductee
Gregory Glenn
Retired
Stouffville, Ont.
Editor’s note: Greg was an Executive Consultant at PharmaChat from 2015-17, and has since retired from the industry.
When Greg Glenn learned that he was being honoured with the Phil Diamond award for Community Service, he was especially moved, because Diamond was one of the people who helped spark his interest in charitable works.
“I first met Phil in approximately 1979. He was a very good friend of mine. He was one of my advertising agency guys when I was a project manager at Eli Lilly,” he said. “I was also involved in the start up of his famous charity golf tournament called Walk in the Park which ran for over 30 years in support of various children’s health organizations.”
Over the span of his more than 40-year-long career as a senior executive handling health policy, government relations, and market access issues for the Canadian pharmaceutical industry, greg always found time to volunteer with non-profit groups. now enjoying his retirement, he has more time to dedicate toward his charitable works. He is currently a Board Director at Children’s Mental health Ontario and Chair of Kinark Child and Family Services. Both initiatives champion the mental health needs of children and their families.
“I’m still doing what I was trained to do,” he explained. “Only now I lobby on behalf of our kids and our families. I go to the government, politicians, and bureaucrats and talk with them about the needs of these families. I try to convince them of appropriate funding and appropriate programming changes to allow these kids and their families to get proper treatment.”
Looking back on his career, Greg says that he is most proud of starting the Glenn group, his own market access and government relations consulting firm, which was then merged with the JBL Associates to form the JBL Group.
“I’m proud of what we accomplished in getting hundreds of drugs covered appropriately for patients across the country during that time period,” he said.
For Greg, using his expertise for non-profit initiatives is a way of giving back the good fortune that he has received throughout the years.
“I worked with some really fantastic people. It was the people I worked with that really motivated me and helped me along the way,” he said.
Aside from his volunteer commitments, he is also making time for his two lifelong interests: golf and travel.
“My wife and I have a number of plans, places to go, and things we want to do. At Christmas we are going to Costa Rica and in the spring, we will be going to Palm Springs. In the fall of next year, we are going to Italy and Doha, Qatar—we have a daughter and her family who live there.”
NEXT WEEK
The 04/06 edition of NPC Healthbiz Weekly will feature Dr. Bettina Hamelin, President and CEO of Ontario Genomics, speaking about Canada's research environment, industry partnerships, and funding during the pandemic. It’s easy to get your no-charge subscription and have the issue sent to your phone or inbox each Tuesday at 6:00 a.m. sharp.
Stay safe, stay sure, and stay on your game. We’ll see you again after the Easter break.