‘I would have been thrilled to use Bleepa when I was working in A&E, because of the time and legwork it would have saved me and my colleagues’.
Sharon Donald – Sales Manager
Here Sharon talks passionately about the ways in which her clinical experience helps to build trust and confidence with clients, enabling her to paint a rich, detailed picture of the ways in which Bleepa can transform their daily workflows while reducing their pain points.
Sharon’s combined medical and business experience across an array of clinical areas means she can tell you everything you need to know about digital health, pharmaceuticals, wound care and, er, maggots.
How has your background as a frontline clinician informed your role at Bleepa?
I began my career as an accident and emergency sister at the country’s first major trauma centre, in Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands. Thanks to the decade or so I spent on the NHS frontline, I know what each member of a clinical team is doing during their day – their tasks, their pain points, and the structures within which they work.
Bleepa would have been gold dust to me and my colleagues when I was working in A&E, thanks to the time and legwork it would have saved us. Because of that, I can easily paint a detailed picture to clients and potential clients of the way that the technology maps neatly, conveniently, and securely onto their care pathways.
The quality of these conversations means that I can act as a conduit between both the client and my colleagues in the marketing, project planning and installation teams. This ensures that we optimise our messaging, and our clients can trust that we understand their needs. That creates a confidence; they can feel comfortable with me.
Can you talk us through some of the practical ways in which your medical insight translates through to your work in digital health?
After I left the NHS, I worked as a sales and business development professional for a series of companies across a range of medical areas, including pharmaceuticals, medical consumables, wound management, and telehealth. That means I can have meaningful conversations with nurses and doctors across all seniority levels, helping them to understand how Bleepa’s capabilities translate into their day-to-day experience.
For example, if a patient has arrived at the emergency department with a Colles (wrist) fracture, a senior house officer can examine the injury and seek advice from a registrar, a more senior clinician. But at that moment the registrar isn’t nearby; they’re occupied with surgery or a clinic session.
It may be potentially four or five hours before the patient can safely be admitted or sent home. But using Bleepa a junior doctor can send pictures, imaging and conversation, explaining the patient’s story and seeking clarification on the correct care pathway.
A registrar will always have five minutes in between cases or clinic appointments. They can check Bleepa on their phone or tablet, concur with the junior’s diagnosis, suggest further treatment, or come down to the relevant ward to quickly examine the patient themselves if required.
So instead of having to wait hours by the phone to bleep a senior clinician, medical staff can communicate quickly and efficiently. That’s gold dust because it’s taken out all those small pain points. I’ve translated this process to wound care specialists as well.
While medical photography is being widely used, it also being mis-used. When a clinician takes a regular picture on their phone and send it using a widely available consumer messaging app, they’ve left a digital footprint on their device, this is patient data where it shouldn’t be.
As a result of my explaining this using language that demonstrates an intimate understanding of their workload, a nurse, a senior house officer or consultant will respond on a different level than they would to a more conventional salesperson, enabling us to form meaningful, long-term relationships.
Talk us through your journey from A&E sister to becoming a sales and business development specialist
By the end of my time working in emergency medicine, my key responsibilities revolved around managing bed capacity for emergency admissions, ensuring that they did not impact on routine care.
I then moved into GP pharmaceutical sales, working for some big-name drug companies. While I learned a great deal, it wasn’t a tremendously rewarding experience, so I switched to working within the medical consumables sector, with a particular expertise in wound care.
I sold wound care products, lymphedema treatments, vacuum-assisted wound therapies, skin cell regenerating tools, you name it. Oh, and I sold maggots.
Maggots are used in wound care?!
Yes, indeed. There is a specific type of maggot that is used for cleaning wounds. They’re common, and they only eat dead tissue. They clean a wound exceptionally effectively! I also sold a tool to re-grow patients’ skin cells to heal extremely serious wounds and burns. Wound care is a fascinating area.
If you’d like to speak with Sharon about any of the areas touched upon in this article, you can contact sales@fbkmed.com.
For more information, visit the links below:
Our Case Study with Royal Berkshire
Bleepa in Action – our short demo video
