09 Mar Partner Spotlight: Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare
We caught up with one of our favorite distributors of M+D products, Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare, to chat with the company’s Senior Director of Product Management, Jen Nicholson.
She told us about her proudest moment so far at Drive: answering the call from a 104-year-old Marine veteran whose wish was to receive Valentine’s cards from around the world. (Read more about Operation Valentine).
Not only did the team at Drive send Major Bill White cards to add to the 25,000 he’s received so far, they took it a step further, and donated a customized Nitro™ Rollator decorated in Marine Corp colors and décor. Our hope is he can move around better AND in a style he’s proud of.
Products and who Drive serves
Speaking of Rollators, Jen told us that the company manufactures and distributes homecare medical equipment—everything from wheelchairs and walkers to hospital beds and oxygen devices, making them a big name in the homecare provider space as well as online and retail.
Drive also supports the Veterans Association.
“Our mission is to enhance the quality of life of the people we touch.”
Drive’s headquarters are in Port Washington, New York, but they are a global organization with offices and warehouses spanning the world.
How Drive’s partnership with Mobility+Designed was born
“Our sales team read about the M+D Crutch in an article and thought the design was innovative,” Jen said.
In fall 2018, co-founder Max Younger and CEO Dan Alcazar visited Drive’s office to explain the revolutionary aid that provides comfortable and versatile mobility.
Jen’s background is in engineering, so when Max and Dan took her team through the M+D Crutch presentation,
“the number one thing that stuck out to me was the industrial design: every nook and cranny had so much thought put into the design.”
She went on to say, “Coupled with the impressive design, Drive’s mission is always to enhance the lives of the people we touch. It’s always more meaningful when you can see the personal connection behind something. So finding out that Max made this for his dad and understood the end user is part of why I find the M+D Crutch to be such a good product.”
Later, Mobility+Designed ambassador and Marine veteran, William, shared his user story during Drive’s annual product development advisory meeting.
“He hit it home. [William’s personal story about finding the M+D Crutch was] definitely a soft spot with veterans and our Drive team. We agreed that the M+D product was absolutely great and to do everything we could to bring this to market.”
Since that pivotal meeting, Jen and her team at Drive have worked to “leverage what Drive brings to the table, which is sourcing distribution, and also get the word out that this is a great product.”
Learnings from working in the mobility space
Drive sells wheelchairs, rollators, canes, crutches, and other ambulatory devices. Jen talked about the shift in her perspective now that she works for Drive and how she finds herself thinking about mobility more.
“One of the things I’ve learned is that you take for granted everything you can do when you’re fully functioning in your mobility. Even a seemingly simple task of putting on socks–we have a sock aid for that. As I started working on these products and thinking of that end user, I truly started asking myself the question: how do we enhance their lives? How do we keep people in their homes as long as possible before having to go to that next stage of assistance?”
About Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare
Headquartered in Port Washington, New York, Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare manufactures and distributes a complete line of medical products, including mobility products, respiratory and sleep products, beds, wheelchairs, sleep surfaces and pressure prevention products, self‐assist products, power-operated wheelchairs, rehabilitation products, resident room equipment, personal care products and electrotherapy devices. Currently, the Company has corporate offices, manufacturing facilities and distribution facilities located throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, Hong Kong, Romania, Australia, the Netherlands and India. The Company markets its products to customers located throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Middle East and Asia. For more information, visit www.drivemedical.com.
About Mobility+Designed
Mobility Designed is a United States based durable medical equipment designer, manufacturer, and online retailer of ambulatory aids. The company is disrupting the category by dramatically improving the user experience of both acute and chronic users; globally. Mobility+Designed products reduce pain caused by other walking aids to the hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, and back while allowing for increased daily living function. Functional comfort and less pain for the user, all made possible via innovative design so that mobility can be pain-free.
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