Testing times: Covid proves a gamechanger for AMS

Defining times as firm moves from screening and assessments to Covid-19 tests for sporting, corporate, and individual clients

Ed Donovan of AMS: 'I believe the pandemic will increase the demand for health checks and preventive services.' Picture: Larry Cummins

Since its establishment a decade ago, Advanced Medical Services (AMS) has provided screening and assessment to over 300,000 individuals across the sporting, educational, and corporate spheres. 

While the initial arrival of the pandemic in March resulted in the company having to reduce operations, the remainder of 2020 been a time of increased activity, driven to a large extend by Covid-19 testing. 

“We have become very busy delivering our testing service to sporting, corporate, and individual clients, and we have performed over 7,000 Covid-19 tests since May of this year,” CEO and founder Ed Donovan explains of a defining period for the company. 

“In addition, we launched our home-based health checks, which have taken off over the past number of months.” 

This was already factored in to the AMS roadmap, but which was accelerated to the market due to prevailing circumstances.

“It has become very popular with our corporate clients as they are able to continue to offer a benefit like this to their staff while they work from home," Ed says. "We are also in the middle of delivering our flu vaccine clinics and have seen a huge demand for the service this year."

AMS upped its game further to meet the ever-changing operational demands over the past six months. 

“It has always been important to have a certain amount of flexibility when delivering our services, but Covid testing has changed things significantly," Ed says. "Where we would normally have up to four-week lead in time from booking to delivery of a service, Covid-19 has turned that on its head where in some cases we are required to be onsite within a 24-hour turnaround with results back the next day. 

It was down to making a decision of whether we are all in our not.

"Thankfully the team has embraced the need for speed and everyone has been putting the shoulder to the wheel the past few months.” 

Having worked for a radiology group in New York early in his career, Ed, who has a BA from UCC and a MBS in management from the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business, returned to Ireland as operations manager at a leading private hospital in Dublin. 

“It was while working there I discovered the importance of prevention and realised that there was a strong need for a quality screening service that is both accessible and affordable to people," he says.

The company began providing cardiac screening to schools and sports clubs across Ireland in 2010 to address the issue of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. It was also the first to develop a concussion management service, endorsed by the IRFU. 

“We now work the GAA, the IRFU, soccer clubs — it all started with screening inter-county players with the GPA, and grew over the years to provide that screening to clubs and schools as well.”

IT innovation continues to play a crucial role in the company’s growth to date, having moved on from an initial third party platform that did not suit it needs.

“At the time we saw ourselves as a health screening/medical services company, and not a software technology company. However, we made the decision to develop our own cloud-based platform and that has been one of the best decisions made to date.” 

A vaccine is the best outcome. Picture: Getty

AMS have since onboarded a number of healthcare organisations, which are now using its cloud-based platform, and are currently in discussions with a number of others.

“We recently brought on Garry Bennett as software program director, who joined us just when the pandemic hit in March," Ed says. "Garry was involved in the development of our software a number of years back so was able to hit the ground running. We have plans on building out our development team over the next 6-12 months.”

While Ireland continues to cope with its second lockdown, Ed sees a vaccine as the best outcome, possibly in 2021: “Possibly in Q1 of next year, and those that need it most are offered it first. Hopefully this will allow things to get back to some level of normality around this timeframe.” 

While Covid-19 has presented an enormous challenge both socially and economically for Ireland, he believes in the possibility of a better health service and general social care emerging out of the hard lessons presently being learned. 

“We have some world class professionals working in the Irish healthcare system, it’s just that some of the infrastructure and resources doesn't allow them to utilise their talents and skills in a way that they could," he says. "This then causes further stress on the system.

We need a different way of looking at things.

"Sláintecare is a good example on how we can bring more services into a community setting where possible.” 

He adds that people will likely invest more time in their health given the complications experienced after contracting Covid-19: “I believe this will also increase the demand for health checks and preventive services.”

Looking forward to 2021 and beyond, Ed sees continued expansion for AMS, both in Ireland and overseas.

“We have already done some work in the UK with the Football Association of Wales, and last January we worked on an exciting project at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland," he says. "I see growth coming mainly in our medical software development and also in providing diagnostic and screening services that help reduce the burden on the hospital and secondary care.” 

The company already provides a heart failure screening service in primary care.

AMS is already providing a heart failure screening service in primary care which allows patients access blood tests and scans that are normally only accessed in a hospital. 

“It is definitely in areas like that we plan on achieving significant growth over the next few years. Expansion to other countries will be achieved through our medical software side of the company. It is easier to scale a product internationally than a service from what I have seen to date.”

With the winners of the 2020 EY Entrepreneur of the Year announced next week, Ed cites the nomination as an acknowledgment of the hard work by the AMS team over the past decade.

“Despite the limitations of Covid, the people in EY have really worked hard and made it a really good experience for all of us nominees," he says, adding that the network of EY alumni and their support is another benefit of being part of it all. 

“Also, it has been great for my family as they are all involved in the business to some extent or another. My sister Jenny celebrated her sixth year with the company recently, and my dad who is a medical doctor works with us too. My brother David and mum also support in so many ways — I couldn't do it without them.” 

Although it’s a job where Ed admits “the phone is never far away from me”, it is an occupation he would not change: “There are a lot of moving parts every day with numerous clinics been run across the country at the same time. We have built a good foundation and a team that are committed to delivering a very high standard of service — I really couldn't see myself working in any other industry.”

EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 awards will be announced on November 12.