INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: ZOLL Medical Corporation
Brenda M. Butler
Director of Government Affairs
ZOLL Medical Corporation
Brenda M. Butler, director of government affairs, has been providing guidance and critical care technology solutions to the health care market for nearly 20 years. Joining ZOLL Medical Corporation in 1992, she has been directly involved in worldwide military and government resuscitation initiatives. With her combined clinical and business expertise, Brenda has provided invaluable insight and assisted military teams with a service-wide successful standardization of the ZOLL M Series CCT Airworthy transport defibrillator/monitor as the PMI (patient movement item) of choice. Prior to ZOLL, Brenda was a critical care nurse for 13 years in Richmond, Va.
Q: How would you describe ZOLL Medical?
A: For ZOLL, advancing resuscitation is the core of our existence. Our dedication to developing new and innovative resuscitation solutions has been our ongoing commitment for more than 25 years. ZOLL’s resuscitation products can provide a single integrated system that offers a complete and comprehensive clinical picture of patient data/documentation—waveforms and codemarkers—and provide a means for provider reinforcement review in the delivery of health care from the forward battle edge, throughout the medevac system, and finally back to the military treatment facilities. Some of our advances include low-energy defibrillation, to minimize damage and dysfunction; CPR feedback, to achieve proper compression rate and depth; and ECG filtering, to minimize CPR interruptions. Moreover, our tough, lightweight defibrillators, easyto- use uniform operating system and advanced documentation software further underscore ZOLL’s ongoing total commitment in meeting the specific requirements and needs of government and military health care.
Q: What are your primary products?
A: Our extensive portfolio includes a range of advanced resuscitation products for pacing, defibrillation, circulation, ventilation and fluid resuscitation. All of ZOLL’s resuscitative products are used daily in the delivery of quality patient care throughout numerous service component medical capability platforms We also provide advanced data management solutions that play a key role in meeting Department of Defense and Veterans Administration initiatives for quality, documentation and electronic patient records initiatives like AHLTA and VISTA.
ZOLL’s military products are designed to be rugged and perform in the most demanding environments. One of our key products is the M Series CCT—airworthy certified in both rotary and fixed wing aircraft—which is a combination monitor and defibrillator, and is the current defibrillator standard of care for the PMI program. Other products include the AED Pro with Real CPR Help, our toughest automated external defibrillator for professional responders, built to withstand the harsh environments; the AutoPulse, an automated chest compression system that delivers consistent, uninterrupted chest compressions, offering significant advantages over manual CPR; and the Power Infuser, a miniature, airworthy certified pump for precise, controlled delivery of IV fluids and blood throughout the entire battlefield and garrison environment.
Q: What makes your products stand out? Why is it different or the best in the market?
A: ZOLL delivers leading integrated resuscitation products that are rugged and easy to use. Our breadth of resuscitation products addresses the full continuum of enroute care from the point of injury at the forward battle edge, through the medevac system, and finally back to military treatment facilities. We are also continually designing resuscitation technologies with enhanced capabilities—such as wireless communication, airworthy capabilities and data management—to meet emerging mission requirements. In addition to advancing resuscitation technology, we are committed to supporting our military partners with outstanding training and technical support.
Q: How are you established and positioned for the future within the military?
A: ZOLL is a well-established supplier to military organizations, having partnered with the U.S. military since 1990, beginning with our NTP external pacemaker. We also supply many of our products to a number of foreign military organizations as well. Noteworthy is the fact we received our first airworthy certification in 1995 for the PD2000 pacemaker defibrillator and another in 2000 for the M Series with 12-lead and pulse oximetry capabilities. Moreover, ZOLL is pleased to have been selected as the leading supplier of resuscitation products which are utilized throughout military health care such as special operations medicine, Navy fleet and Marine expeditionary medicine units, critical care air transport teams, Army forward surgical teams and combat support hospitals, National Guard and Coast Guard organizations. A focused government team is committed to serving our customers by understanding their unique mission requirements and listening to their feedback to develop future innovations and solutions, both clinical and logistical, that address their evolving clinical standards of patient care.
By partnering with ZOLL, our customers can be confident that every product provides superior performance independently, and as part of our vision of a fully integrated resuscitation system. It is our privilege to play an important role in providing resuscitation products in support of the military’s medical mission for our troops around the globe that keep our nation secure and free. ♦