Perfusionists Deserve the Spotlight Too

In the world of medical care, doctors and surgeons often take the spotlight, but have you heard about perfusionists? 

These highly skilled professionals play a critical role in open-heart surgeries, overseeing the extracorporeal oxygenation of blood. Put simply, they manage the heart-lung machine, which temporarily takes over the functions of your vital organs during surgery.

While their work is lesser known, perfusionists are fundamentally important, and in extreme demand in the United States. 

“Currently, there is a shortage of perfusionists in the U.S. with only 3,300 certified and active perfusionists available to work across all hospitals,” said Carolyn Bilyak, Director of Administration at Perfusion Life.

Perfusion Life serves as a pivotal staffing agency, linking perfusionists with hospitals and medical groups worldwide. In 2021, Lithios began working on a groundbreaking two-sided marketplace application with Perfusion Life. The iOS and Android mobile apps were first released, followed by the development and launch of the web dashboard in 2023. This innovative platform helps connect perfusionists to ideal workplace opportunities and effectively addresses the shortage across the nation.

This blog post delves into the mission of Perfusion Life and how they are making a difference in the healthcare community. Additionally, it explores the innovative online and mobile application developed by Lithios, detailing its achievements and how it streamlines job placement for perfusionists, ultimately fostering a more efficient healthcare ecosystem.

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1. Connecting Opportunities with Perfusion Life

Perfusion Life’s proactive approach recognizes the dynamic nature of the profession, harnessing creative resources to empower the perfusion community in securing ideal placements within cardiovascular hospitals, medical groups, or vendor environments. Committed to optimizing patient care, Perfusion Life facilitates the connection of perfusionists with their prospective workplaces, whether for full-time, part-time, or temporary relief roles.

“There is a subset of the perfusion community that travel from account to account to accommodate the need for additional support for most cardiovascular departments,” said Bilyak. “Having a way to communicate with traveling perfusionists, track their onboarding status and filter by specialty, state or status allows our team to quickly and appropriately match perfusionists with hospitals.”

Through the marketplace application developed by Lithios, Perfusion Life opens diverse avenues for perfusionists. Leveraging partnerships with hospitals and medical groups, perfusionists can secure positions ranging from full-time permanent placements to 1099 contracts for travel or relief assignments. 

Additionally, collaborations with vendors offer opportunities for clinical specialist roles, including equipment training and disposable clinical support. Perfusion Life also offers a missionary service, catering to those aspiring to make impactful contributions within the perfusionist community.

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2. Optimizing Workflows Using Innovative Technology

Revolutionizing the process of connecting perfusionists to work opportunities, Lithios spearheaded the development of mobile and web applications offering a distinctive and user-friendly UI/UX design. Prior to the application's implementation, Perfusion Life grappled with platform challenges, hindering efficient document management and direct customer request submissions. Now, they seamlessly track perfusionists' competencies, expediting the job placement process. They currently have uploaded and verified over 6,000 user credentials on the new platform. 

“Both onboarding and maintaining up-to-date documents has radically improved from a 100% manual process that required a lot of touch and time to one that is more automated,” said Bilyak. “We have more confidence in our ability to keep our clinicians compliant with our requirements, the hospital requirements, and the Joint Commission's requirements.”

Perfusion Life’s business flow is now automated, opening up a wide range of opportunities nationwide through their innovative two-sided marketplace. Functioning as a community resource for perfusionists, the new application fosters seamless information exchange without imposing any commitment or obligation. Perfusion Life collaborates with hospitals, medical groups, and vendors to gather diverse opportunities for both full-time and relief requirements.

“The app has allowed us to immediately notify our perfusionists of new opportunities, new or changed credentialing requirements and upcoming events, which has been super helpful for our team,” adds Bilyak.

With swift database searches, Perfusion Life can identify suitable matches for opportunities, enabling perfusionists to make informed decisions on their future workplace. Positive feedback from contracted perfusionists underscores the application’s efficacy in empowering individuals to track their credentialing status and respond to new opportunities in real-time, aided by push notifications.

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Empowering the Unseen Heroes: Perfusionists

Undoubtedly, perfusionists operate behind the scenes, as their contributions are often overshaded by more prominent medical roles. Yet, their significance during critical procedures, such as open-heart surgeries, cannot be overstated.

Perfusion Life works with a quarter of perfusionists nationwide, and with the help of their new two-sided marketplace application developed by Lithios, they are actively addressing the shortage of perfusionists across the nation by offering traveling, full-time, and relief work opportunities. 

Before Lithios’ work on their marketplace application, Perfusion Life grappled with operational bottlenecks, late payments, and complicated certification tracking, hindering efficient job placements. However, the development of the new application marks an exemplary shift, revolutionizing work opportunities for this vital profession. To date, the mobile apps are used by over 850 cardiovascular perfusionists and over 275 requests for jobs have been made.

Of course, transitioning to the new online and mobile application is not always seamless and comes with some challenges. While the majority have embraced the new platform, there is a small subset that requires additional support to navigate it effectively. Perfusion Life has worked to ensure inclusivity and accessibility throughout the transition.

“We do have a handful of non-techie clinicians that need more hand holding and would prefer to email and call rather than use the app. We are working to get them comfortable,” said Bilyak.

As the onboarding process evolves, it's clear that the platform has become a cornerstone for perfusionists, hospitals, and vendors alike. Bilyak underscores the platform's efficacy, stating, “The ability to post jobs and get quick responses, especially when there are urgent requests from our customers, has been very helpful to our team.”

Perfusion Life’s commitment to enhancing the visibility and efficiency of perfusionists demonstrates their pivotal role in modern healthcare. Through innovative solutions and collaborative partnerships, they continue to pave the way for a more streamlined and effective medical system.

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