Portal Instruments: Team, Company, and Community during COVID-19

March 27th, 2020  Portal’s mission is to improve the experience for patients on life-changing therapies and that mission remains in the forefront of our minds as we, like everyone else, navigate these unchartered waters with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our team members, partners, and suppliers are our highest priority and as such, we want to make sure they stay as safe and healthy as possible.   In early March we began restricting all non-essential business travel and started sending people home to work remotely. Though we are an ‘essential business’ as defined by state guidelines, following the strong policy actions taken by Governor Baker in Massachusetts on March 15, we sent everyone home, including our engineering team. Our engineers were able to take equipment home and set-up home laboratories and testing facilities to continue their work.  A small team still has access to the Portal building in case they need to run critical experiments or access equipment.  

As a start-up, we pride ourselves on our agility and adaptability to new challenges.  This is certainly a new challenge and we continue to adapt, learn, and improve in our way of working that can keep our employees safe while driving towards our goals.

We are also looking into ways we can help our community and the greater healthcare system needs.  We have gathered and donated much needed laboratory and medical supplies including PPE gear and N95 masks to the State of Massachusetts. This effort was organized by Mass Emergency Management Agency and it was impressive to see Industry’s response to the State’s call for help.  

We are assessing our ability to redirect resources to design and manufacture much-needed equipment. And of course, with our injection expertise, we have begun looking into ways we can improve vaccine delivery, safety, speed, and quality.  

We, like all of you, are feeling the challenges and complications of today’s complex environment.  Our thoughts go to your families and loved ones in these unprecedented times. Yet, we are confident there will be learnings and outcomes from this that will make us better teammates, communicators, and citizens.  We find a certain peace in staying focused on our work, staying connected as a team, helping in the areas where we can have an impact, and of course, developing a better, safer way of administering drugs and life-changing therapies.

Stay healthy, stay safe and keep in touch!

The Portal Instruments Team

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