Covid-19 has impacted every aspect of business and life as we know it. Organizations have had to adapt quickly to “the new normal,” pivoting their business models to respond to the crisis appropriately.
Medical device companies have been uniquely impacted. In the unprecedented situation of “elective” or “non emergent” procedures being postponed, case support representatives not being able to access hospitals, and patients choosing to delay procedures due to fear of contracting Covid-19, many medical device commercial operations temporarily shut down in ways similar to that of retail or restaurants.
Rewind to March 2020: Body Vision was just taking off. We had finalized our last round of funding in September 2019, launched commercially in Q4 2019, and were bringing in revenues. Our sales pipeline was growing, and we knew we had a technology that would impact patient care and have serious economic benefit to hospitals and physicians.
With procedures coming to a grinding halt at this critical moment of our business lifecycle, it could have been very detrimental; however, we are emerging from this initial impact of the pandemic stronger, more focused, and with strong product advancements. How did we achieve this amidst this crisis?
When our offices closed their doors in mid-March, our global team, already comfortable with daily use of remote work capabilities, seamlessly adapted to the completely remote working environment. Without a learning curve to manage, we were able to continue work and even ramp up and focus efforts while we weren’t traveling to an office or customer sites.
We believe that the most impactful measure we took was this: instead of opting to furlough or lay off any members of our multi-national team, we made the strategic decision to invest all of our resources to use the undefined amount of “down time” to rapidly develop and advance our commercial product.
Based on the customer feedback collected from our first commercial sites, we have focused our product advancement efforts on three major areas:
- Remarkable user experience of AI Navigation Bronchoscopy
- Improvement in quality of imaging and visualization
- Advancement of disposable navigation tools
A Roman poet (Quintus Ennius) suggested that, “A sure friend is known in unsure times.” Indeed, when times get tough, the strength of partnership is tested. The support from the Body Vision team has been extensive and unconditional. In spite of the general uncertainty of the global situation, our team members decided to focus on the future success of our business. People have answered the call to move out of their comfort zone, support activities that don’t typically fall into their purview, and adapt to this completely remote working environment.
With the Covid-19 situation constantly evolving, there are many things that remain out of our control. Looking forward, we feel proud about our great team who is committed to deliver a solution for diagnostics and treatment of lung cancer, no matter what.
