Corporate
TopDue to the spread of the COVID-19 scheduled non-urgent medical operations are being cancelled or postponed at medical institutions all over the world in order to prevent the spread of infections to other patients. In fact, in some cases, the medical professionals who have attended to these operations have also become infected themselves. Medical settings worldwide are struggling to both continue these everyday treatments to save as many patients as possible, and at the same time ensure the safety of their medical staff.
Terumo Asia Holdings Pte. Ltd. (TAP), one of the group companies of Terumo, spearheaded a new initiative for medical professionals who perform vascular intervention. TAP operates in various other countries; Southeast Asia including Thailand and Vietnam, South Korea and Australia. While the way in which diseases spread and the circumstances in the medical settings differ by country and region, the future is equally unclear regardless of the location. Under such circumstances, there was a growing need from medical professionals who work in catheterization labs to access information of neighboring countries as a reference for how to run their own labs while also battling the coronavirus.
In May 2020, TAP found a way to cater to this demand by holding a webinar for physicians and medical professionals in Southeast Asia to actively share information and opinions in an online forum. Physicians from 10 countries who play central roles in interventional therapy were invited to be presenters to an audience of at least 600 participants in total, joining from all over Southeast Asia. The webinar saw lively discussions on topics such as how hospitals on the front lines of admitting COVID-19 patients should be managed, and how medical professionals working in cath labs can control their stress during the pandemic. Physicians from China who had already dealt with the pandemic also joined in to share their tips and experiences including what kind of decisions they made to balance continued medical treatments with caring for their staff during the most difficult times, and the things they reflect on from that point in time.
We are gradually seeing more movement in anticipation of the new normal in both medical settings and the business environment. Terumo aims to stay ahead of the times, actively implementing new methods and technologies without stopping at the conventional ways of doing things as we strive to deliver effective solutions to meet our customers’ needs.
A TAP Associate Commented,
Terumo has its locations all over the world, and we communicate with numerous medical professionals on the leading edge of interventional therapy on a regular basis. When I saw the medical professionals engaged in a lively discussion, all gathered together in one online platform. For us to be able to take the lead and offer such an event, I felt this form of networking was one contribution that Terumo could deliver.
