An Anderson University communication alum was part of an award-winning team that created an app to train medical workers on the use of lifesaving ventilators during the peak of the COVID-19 global pandemic. 

Adina Lundquist, who graduated with degrees in communication and advertising in 2014, helped populate the app with training content centered around how to use ventilators manufactured by her employer, Medtronic. Ventilators are critical devices in the care of patients severely impacted by COVID-19. 

In the early days of the pandemic, ventilators became in short supply and companies like Medtronic and others had to produce and distribute the machines at a rapid pace. 

“When the pandemic hit, we needed to help healthcare professionals around the world learn how to use our ventilators quickly,” Lundquist said. “We had over 100 video resources dedicated to training already, but all were in English. I was assigned to head the translation initiative to ensure that those assets were available in multiple languages. Those videos and translations were housed on an app called the Ventilator Training Alliance, or VTA.” 

The VTA gave healthcare workers quick access to a centralized repository of ventilator training resources from multiple medical device companies. As part of the effort, Lundquist developed a process to properly sync captions in various languages to the training videos. 

“I developed a process for obtaining the .srt (closed caption files) for 10 languages: English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese Simplified (Mandarin), Chinese Traditional, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, and German,” Lundquist said. “Working with an external vendor to obtain those translations, I then had internal native speakers for each language review for accuracy. Once a .srt file was completed, I would attach the file to the correct video in the app so that users could select their preferred language.” 

The app Lundquist helped develop trains healthcare workers on the procedures for handling ventilators. It has reached over 89,000 downloads in over 190 countries.

For her work, Lundquist has won three awards including a 2021 Global Star of Excellence award. The Global Star of Excellence award is presented to Medtronic employees to recognize extraordinary quality and innovation. 

“I’m so fortunate to have been given the opportunity to do something meaningful to help healthcare workers, and ultimately patients around the world,” Lundquist said. “I’m not sure how many under the age of 30 can say they received a department award, their company’s global award, and an international business award for their efforts, and I’m truly humbled by that.”

Lundquist began working for the company in Mansfield, Massachusetts, immediately following graduation from AU, working as an audio/video specialist in support of internal sales training. “When I first began, I primarily created product demonstrations and device tutorials to train our sales representatives,” Lundquist said. “My job has since evolved to focus more on creating interactive media and communications to increase employee engagement and promote our internal programs and services.”

This article was written by Ashley Kate Miller and appears in the Winter 2021 issue of Synthesis.