On March 17th, Sonosite put up its COVID-19 web page, with a large number of instructional and educational videos specific to the assessment and management of COVID-19 patients.

A number of these videos are usually reserved for Sonosite customers only, but the company made them publicly accessible to help as many front-line clinicians as possible to manage COVID-19 more safely, effectively and efficiently with the use of Point-of-Care Ultrasound.

In addition, worldwide infectious disease control is an important consideration and Sonosite is taking this seriously. Given the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic, SonoSite will support our North American customers in this state of emergency by being able to utilize a wider range of cleaners and disinfectants, as long as they are hospital-grade and are on the U.S. EPA’s List N: Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2. 

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Since January, 3M have doubled its global output of N95 and other respirators to more than one billion per year, and the company is on track to deliver two billion respirators by the end of 2020.  However, the company recognized the need to increase the availability of N95 respirators here in Canada. 

On August 21, in collaboration with the Canadian and Ontario governments, 3M Canada announced that it will begin manufacturing N95 respirators in Brockville, Ontario. This will help ensure Canada’s self-sufficiency for this critical product for years to come.  

When the expansion will be fully operational by 2021, 3M will continue working with the government and health agencies to get the N95 respirators into the hands of those who need them most - healthcare workers, first responders, and those in critical infrastructure roles. 

The expansion will help to ensure a consistent domestic supply of this critical personal protective equipment (PPE) for the foreseeable future. 

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Alcon Canada is proud to have donated surgical masks and gloves to its neighbours down the street—Trillium Health Partners’ Mississauga Hospital—and to also Direct Relief for distribution to hard hit areas around the world.

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) is committed to supporting health care systems across Canada in response to the COVID-19 pandemic by supplying critical technologies, such as diagnostic tools and injection devices.

In collaboration with the federal government, BD has recently received a large pandemic order to produce 37.6 million vaccine injection devices to support Canada in planning for a COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

The organization has also collaborated with Quebec Public Health and the provincial Ministry of Health to source a loaner testing unit to expedite COVID-19 testing in Quebec. With the fully integrated, BD MAX™ diagnostic testing system now on-site, clinicians at the Gatineau Public Health Labs can process patient swabs and diagnose cases of COVID-19 locally, within 2–3 hours of taking the sample. The lab previously had a capability of 50 tests per week, which has now increased to 1,400 per week.

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Roche Diagnostics, a market leader in diagnostics testing solutions, manufactures a dual swab kit that works with COVID-19 tests. Due to concerns about sterility once the dual swab kit was opened, testing facilities were required to use only one portion of the two-swab kit per person, discarding the unused swab.

Canadian Hospital Specialties (CHS), a medical device manufacturer and distributor in Oakville, had the capacity to repurpose and separate the Roche Diagnostics kits quickly and the two companies worked together in collaboration with Ontario Health to increase the critical swab inventory available in Ontario.

What’s more, this created jobs. To ramp up production and make this happen, CHS had their 240 employees running full time and hired an additional 27 employees, while staggering start times and leveraging robust employee health screening to protect their safety.

Health Canada approved an expanded indication for use of Edwards’ HemoSphere advanced monitoring platform in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Hemodynamic monitoring refers to the measurement and tracking of different vital signs that help manage blood flow and oxygenation in critically ill patients, like those who are being treated for COVID-19.

By monitoring a patient’s hemodynamics, clinicians can detect changes or problems in a patient’s health, which enables them to make more informed and immediate treatment decisions.

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