We’re proud to announce that Allego has partnered with several of the world’s leading ventilator manufacturers to form the Ventilator Training Alliance (VTA). The Alliance, using Allego’s proprietary technology, has launched a centralized knowledge hub—the VTA app—that connects frontline medical providers with critical information from ventilator manufacturers.

The VTA app provides free access to a repository of training resources including instructional how-to videos, manuals, troubleshooting guides, and other ventilator-operation expertise that’s crucial to helping responders treat patients suffering from COVID-19-related respiratory distress.

Watch an overview of the VTA app

“We’re honored to partner with the world’s leading ventilator manufacturers to be able to provide this all-in-one knowledge resource to healthcare staff. Every one of these professionals working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic is a hero in our eyes,” said Yuchun Lee, Co-Founder and CEO of Allego.

Helping Professionals Working Against the Clock

It’s estimated that about 10% of Covid-19 patients worldwide will require ventilators.  A new analysis reports that 880,000 more ventilators are needed globally to deal with the demand caused by the outbreak. Ventilator manufacturers are working around the clock to accelerate production. On April 8, the president invoked the Defense Production Act to get supplies to these manufacturers.

The speed of the pandemic has made it difficult for hospitals to treat the enormous volume of infected patients. Ventilation is a life-saving treatment for critically ill patients. Ventilators are especially needed during the pandemic as many patients suffer from pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Due to the number of clinicians who interact with patients receiving care, ventilation training needs to cover a wide range of scenarios. But there are several critical bottlenecks in the fight against the virus. These pose major challenges for ensuring consistent care, clinical competency, and patient recovery.

Over time, ventilators have become increasingly sophisticated, with steep learning curves for management and operation. A textbook on mechanical ventilation lists 298 mode names on 36 ventilators in the U.S. alone. Typically, a hospital would opt for a specific make and model and standardize training for that. Due to the shortage, hospitals are searching for any available ventilators or repurposing other machines. Clinicians now face multiple types of devices without the time or information to train on each.

With multiple vendors, even certified respiratory therapists aren’t familiar with each distinct make and model. It’s more dire for those pressed into service from other practices. In the U.S., respiratory therapists are the experts in mechanical ventilation. However, other clinicians—including ER physicians, pulmonologists, anesthesiologists, and nurse practitioners—interact with patients during their treatment and need to be trained.

One risk is that those overseeing ventilators don’t have extensive training in respiratory therapy. Professionals in many specialties have been enlisted to help combat the coronavirus pandemic, as have retired clinicians and medical students whose graduation was accelerated.

Critical Life-Saving Information in a Single Source

The VTA app was created to overcome these life-threatening challenges. Built using Allego’s market-leading learning and readiness platform, the VTA app provides free mobile access to a multi-vendor library of training and product materials for medical professionals. The app will save clinicians the time and effort of tracking down each set of guidelines and allow teams—both expert and novice—to set up this life-saving equipment.

“We can help overcome this pandemic by collaborating across companies, agencies and industries to deliver smart solutions that add value and reduce stress for frontline healthcare heroes when every minute matters,” said Patrick Berges, chair of the VTA and vice president of commercial capabilities, which is part of the Minimally Invasive Therapies Group at Medtronic.

The Ventilator Training Alliance, powered by Allego, is a partnership of ventilator manufacturers including Dräger, GE Healthcare, Getinge, Hamilton Medical, Medtronic, Nihon Kohden, and Philips. Ventilator manufacturers will continuously update the information in the app, pushing out videos, training manuals, and other content updates in real time.

Once content is loaded into the VTA app, medical professionals can access it on iOS and Android devices—even in environments with spotty or no Wi-Fi—or from a web browser. Healthcare professionals working in urgent care will be able to use Allego’s video playback with crucial features such as closed captioning in nine languages and mobile background audio when multitasking.

Allego is Proud to Help the Fight Against COVID-19

The VTA app uses some of the capabilities of Allego’s market-leading learning and readiness platform. Allego’s complete platform is trusted by hundreds of global brands to maximize their employees’ potential by helping them learn new skills, collaborate with peers, and share content, all within an easy-to-use mobile application.

Download the Ventilator Training Alliance App

The app is provided at no cost to medical professionals. To download the Ventilator Training Alliance knowledge hub application, visit the App Store or Google Play Store. Click here to access the hub from any Web browser.

Watch the Video

Watch an overview of the VTA app.

Learn More

Read more about the Ventilator Training Alliance announced today here: https://www.allego.com/resources/ventilator-manufacturers-unite-to-form-ventilator-training-alliance-during-covid-19-pandemic/

Join the Alliance

Ventilator manufacturers who would like to join the Ventilator Training Alliance can contact us at VTA-Join@allego.com.