Managing and Leading Medical Device Companies and Teams During the Pandemic

As COVID-19 continues to spread rapidly, we as medical device leaders have been called upon to work closely with our customers, patients, regulators, and public organizations for the sake of global public health.
 
I have seen this first hand in my own role as the medtech industry races to develop the needed tools and new technologies to fight the virus. The news continues to be fast-paced, and much of it disappointing and frustrating. Still, medical device companies are rising to the occasion by working to be part of the solution.
 
To help the industry navigate the uncertainty of this crisis with confidence, we’re hosting The Greenlight Guru True Quality Virtual Summit. Organizing this event allowed us the opportunity to secure insights from industry leaders participating in the summit. These experts offered up their best advice and recommendations for device professionals to effectively lead and manage teams during this time and ways to prepare for future disruptions. Here’s what they had to say:
 
Lead Teams with Confidence
While the news may be discouraging, leaders must focus on how they can make the most impactful contributions to control the spread of the virus and save lives. Short-term, that might mean ramping up production to new levels; long-term, that might mean sticking closely to regulatory guidance to ensure speed doesn’t destroy quality and create new problems down the road. Leaders must communicate to their organization the essential role that the med device industry has in the fight against COVID-19.
 
Communication within an organization seems to be a shared priority among all medical device professionals, many of whom are now working remote. Kyle Rose, president of Rook Quality Systems, feels that communication must be partnered with flexibility from leadership to maximize employee productivity during these challenging times.
 
“I think it’s essential to maintain communication and flexibility with your team during the pandemic. With the majority of employees working from home, there are many new issues that can affect productivity for each person,” said Rose. “It’s important to discuss internally the best way to manage expectations and work together to improve efficiency. Allowing greater flexibility for working hours or days can improve efficiency and reduce the added stress due to the pandemic.”
 
Alira Health executives stress the fact that while this pandemic is high-stakes, it’s also temporary. “The instinct may be to slow down and withdraw resources,” commented Richard Charter, vice president of MedTech Market Access in Europe & Asia-Pacific. “Instead, this is an excellent time to strategically plan and dedicate time, staff and resources to ensuring that the post-pandemic time capitalizes on key changes in healthcare.”
 
Regardless of this pandemic’s duration, the most precious asset is still people. George Zack, principal and co-founder at Two Harbors Consulting, said it best: “We are all going to face many business challenges in light of the pandemic — but the organizations that holistically consider how they are impacting people, both their patients and their staff and teams, are most likely to effectively navigate these circumstances.”
 
Prepare for Future Disruptions
As many experts shared, while the pandemic is temporary there will inevitably be long-lasting effects that change the faces of various industries. Medical device companies need to be ready for future disruptions that could arise from these tumultuous times. In my opinion, leaders must plan against the downstream effects of pandemic disruptions. They must consider the impacts on areas such as clinical trials and patient travel as well as the impact social distancing will have on teams working remotely.
 
Quality also needs to remain at the center of operations. Paper-based systems will no longer be manageable in ensuring quality and preparedness for future disruptions. Success lies in using industry-specific tools to centralize every product development and quality  workflow into a single cloud-based system, with team-based permissions and data security.
 
To ensure the future success of your organization, innovation and new technology are musts — especially remote communication tools. Amishi Vairagade, engineer at Azzur Group, feels strongly that investing in such technologies is a smart move. “Per the Gallup Organization (Gallup.com), one of the keys to an engaged workforce is that they have the materials and equipment needed to do their job right,” she shared. “With all of us working remotely, there are more issues around getting video tools working properly so that remote limitations are minimized.”
 
Katie Mowery, Sr. human factors specialist at Priority Designs, believes that this pandemic has taught leaders to ramp up quickly on the advantages technology can bring to their business. “We’ve learned a lot about what technology can provide us in lieu of our typical face to face communications, so focusing hard on how to continue to leverage it and keep up on what’s available to maintain these efficiencies in the future can help us work faster and smarter, even once we’re back to business as usual,” she said. “That way, maybe the learning curve isn’t so steep next time.”
 
Other leaders I spoke with agreed that remote communication capabilities would be essential to prepare for future disruptions. Dan Purvis, CEO and co-founder of Velentium, also shared a slightly different priority that medical device leaders should consider. Purvis feels strongly about the urgency the pandemic has created and the preparedness needed to shape the overall company culture. He encourages leaders to take a new perspective.
 
“Ask, ‘Why not us?’ In the event of a global situation, the solution to the crisis is built on thousands of leaders stepping in and filling the gap that their organization is uniquely positioned to address,” stated Purvis. “But that takes courage — and a culture throughout the organization that assures your bold move will be followed by your team. Build that culture now, so you are ready when the need arises.”
 
All of us are working to successfully navigate this crisis and lead our teams with confidence during unprecedented times. By focusing on the universal themes of transparency, communication and actionable solutions through new technologies, the medical device industry will make it out on the other side prepared for the future.
 

---

Jon Speer is the founder and VP of QA/RA at Greenlight Guru a medical device quality management MDQMS software & a medical device guru with over 20 years of industry experience. Speer knows the best medical device companies in the world use quality as an accelerator. That’s why he created Greenlight Guru to help companies move beyond compliance to achieve True Quality.