A game-changing innovation in the delivery room
Healthcare products are bringing patient-focused solutions to C-section recovery and beyond.
In her career as a nurse, Kimberly Smith had seen countless mothers in the delivery room preparing to give birth, all of them stirring with excitement — and, at the same time, gripped with anxiety. The most nervous among them were women who had undergone C-sections in the past, and were about to have one again. They were worried, primarily, about surgical-site infections, a potentially fatal complication particularly common among mothers who have had multiple C-sections.
For decades, there wasn’t an ideal way to manage the closed surgical incision environment to reduce the risk of those surgical site infections. But after years of research, development, testing and clinical trials, Solventum — formerly known as 3M Health Care — developed a solution.
“The response from the use of that therapy — she feels so much more secure, she can pick up her baby earlier — I mean, that’s life-changing.”
— Kimberly Smith BS, RN, Area Clinical Specialist Leader, Medical Surgical Division, Solventum
They launched 3M™ Prevena Therapy: a negative-pressure incision management system with a therapy unit and wound dressing that could be applied to closed incisions and aid in lowering the chances of developing surgical site infections for patients with high risk. It was the perfect product for the mothers Smith had seen in the delivery room. Once it reached them, the impact was noticeable — both clinically and, for Smith, personally.
“Maybe there’s a mom that had problems with her last C-section, and she’s worried that this is going to happen again. Then Prevena Therapy was used,” said Smith, an RN and clinical specialist leader at Solventum. “Those are the days that really keep us grounded and remind us that what we’re doing is important.”
Kimberly Smith BS, RN, Area Clinical Specialist Leader, Medical Surgical Division, Solventum
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Prevena Therapy is just one example of how nurses, researchers, scientists, engineers and others at Solventum — a company of more than 22,000 employees, with roots in the medical field that stretch back 70 years — are working toward a common goal: solving healthcare problems in a way that places patients at the heart of everything they do. In the process, they’re creating innovative products that can save providers time, resources and energy — allowing them to optimize their ability to serve as many patients as possible and help achieve safer, more effective outcomes.
“With this therapy, we have seen a reduction in infection rates in those surgical sites, which is huge for the patient. But it also is huge for our clinicians and our hospital systems,” Smith said. “If you can reduce the rate of surgical site infections, you can help reduce the cost of healthcare. You can help reduce how often patients have to come back in for revision. That’s helpful in all aspects. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
Solventum brings that same, patient-focused approach to their development of products used in protein-based therapeutics and vaccines, more commonly known as biopharmaceuticals, an emerging technology on the cutting edge of modern medicine. Jonathan Hester, a division scientist at Solventum, was part of the team that developed two products — the 3M™ Emphaze™ AEX Hybrid Purifier and the 3M™ Harvest RC Chromatographic Clarifier — that dramatically accelerate the process of purifying protein-based therapeutics and vaccines, like the monoclonal antibody products that have been used to treat covid-19.
“What sets us apart is our desire to innovate, and to continually grow and change. Even though our products are working great now, what can we do better?”
— Kimberly Smith BS, RN, Area Clinical Specialist Leader, Medical Surgical Division, Solventum
In equipping drug manufacturers to produce protein-based therapeutics and vaccines more efficiently and effectively, Hester and the rest of his colleagues always have one primary goal in mind: getting critical treatment to patients who need it as quickly as possible.
“We want to make the processes to produce these kinds of therapeutics more simple, more easy to develop for each new drug product, so that we can have greater volumes of therapeutics produced more quickly,” Hester said. “It’s about simplifying the process for our customers and simplifying the route from drug discovery to the clinic.”
Those hallmarks — efficiency, innovation, expediency, and above all else, care for the human beings at the heart of the healthcare industry — are standards Smith said she sees all across Solventum.
“What sets us apart is our desire to innovate, and to continually grow and change,” Smith said. “Even though our products are working great now, what can we do better? What can we do better for our patients to make their healthcare better? Nothing’s perfect. We always want to try to do bigger and better for our patients.”
Solventum is passionate about patient-focused solutions.