Mike Mussallem believes the mission to transform patient lives through medical technology lends itself to charitable giving.
The chief executive of Edwards Lifesciences Corp. said its employees—about 4,700 here and 15,000 worldwide—were quick to step up and say ‘How can I help?’ when the pandemic hit.
“Charitable giving is core to Edwards. It’s a very tangible and vibrant part of our culture,” Mussallem told the Business Journal last week.
“We’re inspired by our aspirations, and our employees are engaged in the health of patients.”
While Edwards—the largest publicly traded company in OC with a $53 billion market cap—navigated unprecedented challenges in 2020 to ensure its patients received the critical care they needed, the organization also went all out in support of Orange County and global communities.
Edwards anticipates its total giving to almost double from $11 million in 2019 to $20 million in 2020.
“About 83% of our employees did some charitable activity in 2020. I was very pleased to see that,” Mussallem said.
The Edwards Lifesciences Foundation expects this year to contribute more than $2 million in grants to local nonprofit organizations, addressing the needs of homelessness, food insecurity and more.
It also embarked on a $1 million pledge in support of its partner Orange County United Way. These foundation grants and employee contributions will be paid out over the next two years, the company said.
Edwards’ cafeteria workers spent some 3,400 combined hours making 20,000 meals that were distributed via Orange-based Illumination Foundation and Santa Ana-based Mercy House.
Individual employees provided supplies for ‘college showers’—a basket of school supplies for college-bound students—that were put together by the OC chapter of Girls Inc., and many volunteered their time at food banks hosted by Second Harvest Food Bank.
Edwards is one of five winners of the Business Journal’s inaugural Companies That Care awards.
Engaged Employees
Edwards was quick to transition its operations in March, sending a large majority of its Irvine employees to work remote with laptops and other equipment need to ensure effective work from home.
Its manufacturing workers—including about 1,200 here—continued to sew heart valves, while its clinical employees continued to provide case support in the field.
“We’re fortunate to have been able to protect jobs,” Mussallem said.
The company has hired about 1,000 workers since March.
Analysts expect $4.6 billion in 2020 annual sales for Edwards.
Sadly, some patients did not receive the care they needed in time due to the closure of elective procedures in many countries. Clinical trial enrollments were also delayed.
Nevertheless, Edwards continued its work and more than 50,000 patients were treated with its SAPIEN valves in 50 states and 62 countries since March.
“This year’s been really hard on patients, and it’s been hard on our employees,” Mussallem said.
One silver lining that surprised Mussallem was that employee engagement scores were higher this fall compared to a year ago—“higher than pre-pandemic,” he said.
“I’ve got to believe this opportunity to give back has a spill-over effect on employees, and has a positive impact on how they feel about their work,” he said.
Cardiovascular Care
Much of the company’s charitable efforts center around work to educate, screen and treat individuals with heart valve disease in underserved communities. This philanthropic initiative is called Every Heartbeat Matters and serves as the cornerstone of the company’s global corporate giving.
“It was a big year for Every Heartbeat Matters,” Mussallem said. “We had our five-year results, we beat our goal, and we decided we need to do even more.”
Edwards screened and treated 1.7 million people in the last six years, surpassing its goal of 1.5 million in that time. It’s upped the ante and set a goal of reaching 2.5 million people by the end of 2025.
While treating patients with heart valve disease remains a major focus for Edwards—the company’s TAVR unit is its largest, with projections to grow 15% to 20% to $3.2 billion to $3.6 billion in sales in 2021—it will broaden its EHM initiative to include all structural heart diseases and critical care support.
One way of doing that will be increasing product donations for heart valve and critical care patients through its partnership with global relief organization Map International, the company said.
‘Smart’ Assistance
Edwards’ recent push into smart monitoring technologies is playing an important role in assisting COVID patients.
The company this year provided nearly $10 million worth of its heart valves technologies and critical care monitors and sensors for humanitarian care outside the U.S.
Edwards’ clinical employees and partners also volunteered their time to provide virtual training and real-time support for front-line workers caring for COVID patients in those regions.
Its HemoSphere platform and sensors are used to track and measure key vital signs, and artificial intelligence-powered software that runs on the platform provides proactive alerts to physicians.
The software for example offers the only predictive parameter for dangerously low blood pressure, which is also known as a hypotensive event, Katie Szyman, corporate vice president and general manager of critical care, said during the company’s annual investor conference earlier this month.
