Nihon Kohden Names New CEO of North American Operations

Nihon Kohden, a U.S. market leader in precision medical products and services, has appointed Eiichi Tanaka as its new president and CEO. Tanaka is taking over the helm of the organization from Yasuhiro Yoshitake, who led the organization through the 2019 realignment of U.S. leadership.

“The U.S. is a unique and critical market that requires a deep understanding of the dynamics that drive healthcare, especially in the midst of the current COVID-19 crisis,” said Hirokazu Ogino, president and CEO of Nihon Kohden Corporation. “Tanaka’s experience in helping drive growth and establish excellence across the organization will benefit our American operations and further improve our position as a leader in patient monitoring, neurology and critical care technology.”

Tanaka, who has been with Nihon Kohden since 1985, previously served as president of the company’s U.S. operations between 2003 and 2008. Since 2008, Tanaka has held a number of positions in the organization, including general manager of human resources, general affairs and consumables, president of Nihon Kohden Tomioka Corporation and general manager of the corporate strategy division.

“At Nihon Kohden, we are focused on delivering operational and customer service excellence to hospitals and health systems,” Tanaka said. “Making sure that those on the front lines of care have access to exceptional technology that is simple and effortless to deploy is a core tenet of our day-to-day operations. We believe these shifts will allow us to continue to deliver on this promise as we further grow our share of the U.S. market.”

In late January, Nihon Kohden commercially launched its new NKV-550 Series Ventilator System, which offers a full suite of applications necessary in a critical care setting for patients of all ages (neonate through adult). The NKV-550, which was first introduced at the annual American Association for Respiratory Care Congress 2019 in November 2019, is a ventilator that features an integrated touchscreen, intuitive user interface, and onscreen help functions.

The NKV-550 was developed to seamlessly transition between invasive ventilation, noninvasive ventilation and high-flow oxygen therapy, allowing clinicians to respond to a patient’s respiratory support needs without having to change devices.

“We have received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback about the NKV-550 since we first introduced it at AARC,” said Genoveffa Devers DNP, MSHA, RN, CPHQ, vice president of clinical and strategic alliances at Nihon Kohden. “Hospitals and health systems are eager for a sleek and intuitive ventilator that offers the latest in respiratory technology and eliminates the need for different devices for invasive and non-invasive ventilation. We developed the NKV-550 to fulfill this need in the market and help advance respiratory care.”

The NKV-550 was created based on the lung protective approach to ventilation and features the Gentle Lung suite of applications to provide clinically relevant, easy-to-use tools for the open-lung approach to ventilation. The ventilator offers highly customizable screen configurations, including on-screen help tools, enabling the ventilator to fit into your paradigm rather than requiring you to adapt to it. The app-based design provides guided processes to help create a more streamlined, systematic way for clinicians to optimize care of their ventilated patients.

The NKV-550 also offers Protective Control, a feature that uses a second graphic user interface placed outside the isolation room of a contagious patient who is being mechanically ventilated. The respiratory therapists and clinicians can view the ventilator monitors and alarms, adjust ventilation and alarm settings, and pause the alarm through the second graphic user interface outside the isolation room, as long as the patient is within the sight of the clinician through the room’s glass window. When managing a patient who has a communicable disease case and is in isolation, this feature protects both the clinician and the patient. – MPO