Driven by a passion to improve patients’ quality of life
Curiosity and continuous learning have always been some of Andres Beiras’ ground principles in life. He used to spend every day in the operating room and the lab, and today he is part of the team that develops the very same therapies and solutions that made his job as a cardiac surgeon and scientist possible.
Before joining Getinge, Andres Beiras worked as a cardiac surgeon driven by a strong passion to give patients the best possible chance to get back to a normal life.
“People often ask me what it is like to save someone’s life. I’ll tell you what, it feels much better than losing it. But my objective was not only to save lives, it was to give patients the best possible quality of life after the surgery. To enable them to still do the things they wanted to do,” says Andres.
Andres is a father, a husband, a doctor and a scientist. In 2001, he graduated as a Medical Doctor in Spain and then moved to Germany to take on a scientific career within transplantation. With a curious mind and aspiration for continuous learning, he didn’t hesitate when the opportunity came to widen his scope to the field of cardiac surgery.
“My specialty was heart failure surgery and mechanical circulatory support. I worked with extracorporeal life support (ECMO), intra-aortic balloon pumps (IABP), ventricular assist devices (VADs), and heart transplantations. Later on I added catheter therapy, repairing valves,” explains Andres.
He worked close to the patients’ hearts every single day and for him the bond between surgeon and patient was very important. The best moments were when he received news months after surgery that a patient was doing well; that the motorcyclist was back on his bike and the hiker climbed the mountains yet again.
“Therapies and technologies have developed a lot, especially during the last years. Today, there are amazing therapies and medical devices that give even patients with severe cardiac failure a good chance to continue living and eventually going back to a somewhat normal life.”
In the operating room, Andres found teamwork to be of the greatest importance. Together, he and his colleagues made a big difference.
“The cardiac surgeon is just one piece of the puzzle; there are nurses, anesthesiologists, perfusionists and of course the medical devices. There is a mutual need for everything and everyone to work together, performing at their best to create good outcomes. It’s a special atmosphere.”
What attracted Andres to enter a new professional pathway and join Getinge were his ground principles – hard work to improve patient’s quality of life, professional honesty and curiosity, and a continuous learning effort.
“Today, I work on a fantastic medical affairs team where collaboration is equally as important as it is in the OR. Our main task is to ensure therapies and solutions that are safe for health care professionals to use and can improve lives for countless patients worldwide.”
His experience from not only using Getinge’s ECMO equipment and IABP during surgeries, but also conducting research about them, comes in handy in his role as Global Medical Director within Cardiopulmonary.
“I used to be the ECMO team, now I am part of the team that develops the ECMO equipment. We work with usability, clinical documentation and clinical data. I am happy that I get to continue to broadening my experience together with this great team of individuals and still be part of treating patients, just in another way. I feel very passionate about my job, I learn new things every day and that’s the way I like it.”
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