A personal note from Dana Oakes
Dear Healthcare Provider,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who have visited our site during these unusual and trying times.
On Thursday March 19th 2020, Scot Jones, my partner and son-in-law, and I were brainstorming how to best serve our profession right now. We realized that there was rapidly changing information, and lots of it. Some RT departments reported changing policies and procedures related to COVID-19 nearly daily. We realized we could leverage our knowledge and skills to put together a quick reference site.
We immediately suspended all our development work here at Respiratory Books and Oakes Academy and went to work full time. During a marathon 3-days we gathered every bit of up-to-date clinical advice and evidence-based guidelines we could find. Our goal was to research, simplify, and synopsize the myriad of medical information that was flooding our health care system – and differentiate between the good from the “not so good."
On Monday, March 23rd , we launched our COVID-19 RESPIRATORY CLINICAL COLLABORATION PAGE.
The result was immediate as therapists, physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals from around the world began to tune in for the latest updates! As the intensity of this crisis gained momentum, it became apparent that the this site became even more critical as global and national evidence-based guidelines, theories of best practice, and clinical experience changed and developed on a regular basis. Our commitment therefore, became ongoing. For the next 2 and ½ months we worked day and night to keep the site updated, reflective of every up-to-the-minute change we became aware of.
The result was overwhelming! Some days we had over 100 emails, dozens of phone calls, all from therapists and others seeking advice, clarification, suggestions, and offering gratitude for help "in the trenches." Over the 2 ½ months, our site had over 1.2 million visits, a complete honor where we could be part of the biggest battlefield our profession has thusfar served on (and continues to serve on).
As the immediate crisis slows, we want you to know that we will continue to offer this amazing FREE resource on a continual basis – updating as needed with all the evidence-based guidelines that will hopefully be coming forth from all the clinical experience we have all garnered during this extraordinary time.
We hope that you will continue to rely on our help as we all proceed through the uncharted future we all face before us.
We also hope that if this has been a blessing to you, please consider telling others about our products and consider staying on our email list as we continue to develop exceptional education materials to help raise the level of professionalism of our fantastic Respiratory Profession.
THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS!
Dana Oakes
