October 15, 2020

How Boston Scientific is Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic

At Boston Scientific, our priority is to protect and aid the health and safety of our employees, our customers and their patients. That has always meant ensuring that our life-changing devices and therapies are available when needed. Now, it also means finding new and creative ways to navigate the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue to make decisions guided by our core values to support our global community.

Adapting to serve customers and patients

We are leveraging technology to provide remote support for healthcare professionals. This includes augmented reality platforms for remote case support, technical support and digital training and education programs. Our “train the trainer” sessions safely support adoption of our latest innovations. These programs combine virtual group sessions with hands-on learning opportunities so that physicians gain experience with our newest devices and therapies in a one-on-one setting without travel. To help customers understand the impact of COVID-19 on patient sentiment, we conducted patient research and developed tools and resources to help customers re-engage with patients. Providers can also access on-demand webinars to learn how to navigate new and changing legislation and challenges in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Protecting our global team

These actions come amid significant changes in the way our global workforce has learned to operate in order to keep our employees, our customers and their patients safe. Our employees provide on-site support to customers in accordance with guidance from local health authorities and following hospital protocols. Employees who can perform their job functions from home have been working remotely with flexible work arrangements. We’ve taken a tiered approach to reopening larger sites so that employees whose roles require a return to our facilities can do so safely, while meeting customer and patient needs and ensuring business continuity. Extra precautions, including increased cleaning measures, social distancing protocols and the use of face coverings, are in place for employees who work onsite. We are also supplying personal protective equipment (PPE) for employees.

Additional resources are available to support the physical, mental and financial health of our employees, including employee assistance programs, wellness and mental health resources and flexible work arrangements. In the U.S., we’re also supporting working parents by increasing backup childcare subsidies, student tutoring and virtual learning resources.

Caring for our communities by providing immediate support

To help meet the urgent needs of healthcare providers, we have contributed more than $18M to aid COVID-19 relief efforts globally through monetary and supply donations, and by providing engineering and manufacturing expertise and resources. This includes donations of PPE and medical equipment to local hospitals and government agencies. The company also provided support to children, families and the most vulnerable through direct financial contributions to local community and global non-profit organizations including Project HOPE and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Global collaboration and meaningful innovation to address critical needs

Through collaboration with hospitals, universities and industry peers, we found innovative ways to address the urgent demand for PPE and ventilators. Our teams were involved in several initiatives to help meet medical needs associated with COVID-19.

Ventilators

We worked with the University of Minnesota Bakken Medical Device Center and industry collaborators to bring an emergency resuscitator named the Coventor to market, which can be used as an alternative when traditional ventilators are not available. Following U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorization in mid-April 2020, the company manufactured an initial supply of Coventors, with the ability to scale up production as needed. The University of Minnesota made the design files available so that other interested organizations can help manufacture Coventors going forward. The machine is intended to work as a one-armed robot to pump an Ambu® bag, replacing the need for manual respiration in emergency settings.

We leveraged our supply chain capabilities to source and produce components for commercial ventilators, expand supply chain capacity and help enable increased global production of transportable ventilators.

Personal protective equipment

We have helped address PPE shortages among healthcare workers by producing face shields across several sites, through a collaboration with the nonprofit GetUsPPE.org and the plastic packaging company Prent Corporation. Boston Scientific employees assembled and donated well over one million face shields for healthcare providers.

Working with an international coalition of medical experts, clinicians and industry leaders, we designed and developed the Pneumask™ Face Shield. The FDA authorized device combines a full-face snorkeling mask and a Boston Scientific custom-molded adapter that wearers can attach to a medical-grade air filter. The Pneumasks were donated to hospitals across the country and design details for the adapter mold were made available for continued production by other manufacturers.

At Boston Scientific, we have always found our purpose in working alongside healthcare providers to solve some of healthcare’s toughest challenges. Our commitment is unwavering, regardless of the obstacles we face today, and we will emerge from this challenging time stronger, together.

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