Commitment and passion brings light to Gislei Romero’s eyes
Biomedical systems technologist Gislei Romero, who joined Getinge 14 years ago, has a passion, which can also be called a vocation or mission: changing the patients’ reality. So far, he has trained more than 4,500 health care workers.
With his eyes and heart turned to the patients, Gislei Romero, Regional Therapies Development Manager at Getinge, never gets tired of carrying out work behind the scenes of medical care.
“Since joining Getinge in early 2007, I have worked within many areas of the company; product specialist, technical assistance, customer support and training,” Gislei says.
This broad experience, combined with his curious and studious nature and a professional background that blends engineering with medicine, gives him an in-depth knowledge of Getinge's wide range of products and how they are applied in the best way.
Currently, Gislei is an assistant professor of the postgraduate course at the Institute for Research and Education in Health of São Paulo (IPESSP). Through congresses, classes, courses with realistic simulations and webinars, he has trained more than 4,500 health workers to properly operate Getinge's equipment and achieve best possible results from each therapy.
“The main focus in the therapy development area is to save lives and improve the patients’ quality of life. I feel co-responsible for this process along with the medical team. In addition to being a supplier and industry provider, I want to provide active support in their battle for saving lives. This is priceless,” he explains.
Gislei recalls with pride and a touch of emotion an event in a hospital in Cuiabá where the team was not getting the desired results with the extracorporeal life support therapy, ECMO. There was a lack of understanding of the correct handling of the Getinge equipment.
“In partnership with the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO), which is present in Latin America, we developed a course for the clinicians based on realistic simulations. Within 15 days of completing the classes, they began to have success with the therapy. We managed to change the reality of that team and the patients they care for. It felt very gratifying,” he says.
In addition to the extracorporeal life support sector (ECLS/ECMO), Gislei's work also focuses on cardiac assistance, including equipment such as intra-aortic balloons, the compact heart-lung support system Cardiohelp, catheters and counterpulsation pumps.
He also continues to support and advise all areas of the company and provides internal training for the company's engineers and technicians in Brazil and abroad.
The education tools are developed in cooperation with the marketing area. In addition to setting up training and simulators, they prepare studies and reviews of scientific papers to share with health care professionals.
Gislei believes that this intense professional life would not be possible without the support of his family.
“Before the pandemic, I spent 95 per cent of my time traveling to teach courses in other countries. Sometimes, my family even had to go abroad to meet me after months of absence,” he says.
For Gislei, commitment and passion for the work are much more than words. They are drivers of his daily efforts to share his extensive knowledge with health professionals – which is often only possible on weekends.
“It really makes me happy to receive a message or reading a publication about positive patient outcomes where my participation may have played a role. It could be a family man who was saved, or a pregnant woman with severe COVID-19, who had a premature birth, spent two months in at the ICU receiving ECMO treatment, and still lived to know and care for her baby. Moments like that recharge my passion every day,” Romero explains.
In difficult times of the pandemic, Getinge’s team had to reinvent themselves to provide excellent service to hospitals, health care professionals and patients. Gislei has a recipe for keeping the flame of enthusiasm burning all the time:
“The demand for training is very high. Every time I feel tired and stressed, I try to think of the positive results. The key to moving forward is never giving up on your passion and finding mechanisms to continually renew it.”
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