Interview with: Annie Condon, Modality Manager for Perioperative Care, Dräger Medical UK

Annie Condon, UK Modality Manager for Perioperative Care with Dräger Medical UK, gives Anaesthesia Product News an insight into how the company is responding to the needs of its customers.

APN: What does your role at Dräger Medical entail?
AC: ANSAs Modality Manager for Perioperative Care I am responsible for the management of local marketing solutions and sales of anaesthesia and patient monitoring devices in the OR. I work closely with our Account Managers, Application Specialists and Technical Support Centre in sustaining the sales activities directly related to our customers requirements.

Communicating directly with customers and key opinion leaders is an integral part of my role, as is supplying important customer feedback that allows me to provide input to Dräger Medical global activities so that our services and products meet the needs of our customers.WER

APN: What motivates you and do you get a lot of job satisfaction?
AC: Yes I do. Dräger Medical is a forward thinking company. It attaches a lot of importance to its employees and considers us a very important resource. As an employer it gives me good support and encouragement. I get regular access to staff development and training programs to improve my skills. It also places great importance on teamwork and on cross-departmental cooperation and that, I believe, contributes greatly to better communication internally, which in turn helps me to provide a high level of service to my customers.

Working with state of the art medical device products also gives me added confidence. I know that products developed by Dräger Medical are the result of intensive dialogue with customers and, as such, address their needs.

I also like the fact that as a company it gives something back to the community, both locally and worldwide. Just recently, Dräger Medical initiated the world’s first symposium on bird flu management in Singapore and brought together experts with invaluable frontline experience in treating bird flu. That contribution is really important and I like being a part of that. For me it’s really about “making a difference”.

APN: How is Dräger Medical a forward thinking company?
AC: Well, it looks at the larger picture and the changing healthcare environments customers face. With increasing demands for cost efficiency and quality being imposed on clinicians and hospital managers, care provision processes and workflow have more and more become the focus of change. We want to address the changing environments and help customers make a smooth transition to the healthcare environment of the future. Because Dräger Medical is present throughout the patient care process we are able to provide solutions that support efficient clinical processes, such as our CareArea™ Solutions.

APN: What do you mean by CareArea™ Solutions?
AC: A CareArea™ Solution is the combination of integrated medical systems and/or services, which includes Monitoring, Information Technologies, Therapy, Architectural Systems and Accessories, as well as Education & Training and DrägerService®. These CareArea™ Solutions support patient-centered care procedures and related workflows such as information workflow, patient transport and device preparation.

By using care processes we can successfully help customers impact the business of care - which in the end comes back to efficiency and quality of care. By emphasizing continuous innovation, seamless integration and comprehensive services across all areas, our CareArea™ Solutions are capable of delivering fundamental advantages that lead to enterprise-level efficiencies. These integrated solutions do make a real impact on the business of care.

APN: So Dräger Medical has quantifiable evidence that the CareArea™ solutions do have an impact?
AC: Yes, we have measurable, proven results that demonstrate significant savings. For example, research has shown that 25-50% of the total costs in the hospital for an operated patient arise in the OR so any reduction in costs will have an impact. Professor Michel Struys, Gent, examined our new anaesthetic workstation Zeus and compared it with a classical anaesthesia machine. The examination concluded that Zeus could save up to 48% of anaesthetic agent costs using Target Controlled Anaesthesia (TCA) versus low flow anaesthesia. These findings clearly make a difference to patient recovery times and length of stay in hospital, which in turn has an impact on the financial bottom line.

APN: Tell us a bit about Zeus.
AC: Zeus is a good example of the thinking behind Dräger Medical’s CareArea™ Solutions. Hospitals are looking for ways to improve processes and technologies are key to this. Equipment solutions have to meet a broader range of expectations than ever before. Today’s hospitals, and even more the hospitals of tomorrow must increase the OR utilisation rate, while improving flexibility in planning of OR resources and capacity. In the OR an anaesthesia solution needs to build in advantages for administration and IT, as well as anaesthetists and patients. The Zeus Workstation fills that need like no other system can.

Zeus integrates all acute forms of anesthesia applications, patient monitoring, and documentation. In addition to the manual control of fresh gas dosages, Zeus also allows for automatic control of oxygen, carrier gas, and volatile anesthetics TCA (Target-Controlled Anesthesia). Additionally, intravenous applications, from TIVA (Total Intravenous Anesthesia) to TCI (Target-Controlled Infusion), can be controlled through the same operating concept. Zeus incorporates all the functionality of our Infinity Patient Monitoring System™, including connection to hospital information systems via the Infinity Network.

APN: So, intensive care has been brought into anaesthesia and surgery?
AC: Yes, in a manner of speaking. Improved mechanical ventilation will allow anaesthetists to control anaesthesia much more precisely and to improve pulmonary function during anesthesia and surgery. Zeus gives performance equal to a state-of-the-art ICU ventilator.

Together, Zeus and our CareArea™ Solutions speed up processes, improve workflow and boost productivity, while reducing costs in terms of time, resources and results.

To contact the Dräger Medical team, call 01442 213542.