As we near the holiday season and the New Year, we reflect on our successes, challenges, exciting projects, and events. Join us in looking back at some of the tops and downs of 2021.

In one word, this year has been a rollercoaster for us. Full of ups and downs, milestones, and new projects. Not to mention the Covid pandemic that has affected us all in many ways.

The biggest challenges we had this year are tightly related to the pandemic. There were situations when we were not allowed to travel and meet our customers in person, so we had to implement a lot of changes to stay in touch. Amongst other things we adapted to online demonstrations and meetings to keep our staff and everyone else safe.

One of our biggest challenges was and still is, communicating the need to better prepare for future threats and pandemics. The fact that the same people who are meant to be planning for the next pandemic are the ones who are up to their ears in work during the current pandemic is not only our challenge but a global problem. When it comes to preparedness, we must learn from the past and give our best to be ready and more efficient in the future.

But, let us not forget to celebrate some of our most valuable successes.

We are very proud of our recent ISO13485 audit that will lead to a certification next year. This is a big achievement for a small start-up like ours and obtaining this certificate will surely open a lot of doors for us in the future.

Another success is the Oslo Innovation Week award, a collaboration between the City of Oslo and Innovation Norway designed to highlight the companies that made an extraordinary impact on both business and society. Being a small company, this award means a lot to us and serves as a big acknowledgement of our hard work.

In 2021 we have started a lot of new and exciting projects that will soon see the light of day. One of them is the new bariatric EpiShuttle version.

Speaking about launches, this year is marked with our previously announced geographic expansion to USA and Japan. Our detailed market analysis concludes that there is a big need for better pandemic preparedness and more efficient transport of highly infectious patients. All the gaps that were present in handling the current pandemic are now clearly visible, and we are positive that our solutions will help in saving the lives that could have been saved before if the nations were better prepared.

To sum it up, this year has been quite different from the year of 2020. Business-wise, we have established a good pipeline and we managed to build the organisation to a higher level with new projects, live and online demonstrations, and a new base of potential customers from all around the world. We have managed to keep a solid commercial foothold and a steady increase in sales from 2019, disregarding 2020 as an out of the ordinary year.

Our biggest New Years’ wish is that the authorities, politicians, and health care management prioritise emergency preparedness, training, and practical experience that will certainly lead to saving more lives in future pandemics and threats.