5 Questions With: Pat Zerbo, Vice President of New Business Development at Dynatomy

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (May 12, 2020)–New York state has arguably been the hardest hit by the novel coronavirus outbreak—and that’s leading to some creativity in the business world. One example is D’Addario, a musical instrument manufacturer that is the parent company of therapy and rehab product manufacturer Dynatomy. Dynatomy’s products developed from a line of hand exercisers for musicians and have found a home in retail home medical equipment (HME) stores, physical therapy offices and more. In the midst of the pandemic, D’Addario and Dynatomy are producing face shields from D’Addario drum heads—dubbed Project Excelsior—to help protect those on the front lines from infection. Pat Zerbo, Dynatomy’s vice president of new business development, talked with HomeCare about why and how the company shifted gears.

HomeCare: How is COVID-19 affecting your business?
Pat Zerbo: With our factories closed as non-essential businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely handicapped our business. We are not able to produce musical instruments or therapy products by order of the state of New York. Fortunately, our distribution center was classified as an essential operation, and as a result we have been able to fulfill some orders. We distribute our products to over 130 countries where there are varying degrees of the outbreak and as a result, varying degrees of demand for our products. Though order volume is down in general, with our factories closed, we are also running out of inventory. Recently, we were able to open our drumstick factory in Texas and we are preparing to do the same in with our woodwinds factory in California. What remains a mystery, however, is when we can reopen our New York-based factories, where we produce the majority of our products, including musical instrument strings, drumheads and therapy products.

HC: What led to the decision to manufacture personal protective equipment?
Zerbo: We are a vertically integrated, innovative company with a lot of bright, creative minds. When we were facing the prospect of our factories being closed due the pandemic, a team of our engineers, determined to help with the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) here in New York, decided to design a simple, low-cost medical face shield out of raw materials we commonly use for the production of acoustic drumheads. Since our Dynatomy business was already Food and Drug Administration (FDA) registered for level 1 products like face shields, we were able to attain an essential service classification and commenced the production of face shields with a plan of producing up to 100,000 per week. We have already received hundreds of thousands of requests and we are working feverishly to produce shields and fulfill orders.

HC: Tell me about the name “Project Excelsior.”
Zerbo: We named the face shield initiative “Project Excelsior” after the New York State motto, which means “Ever Upward,” because it captured the extraordinary determination, ingenuity and can-do spirit of our small team of engineers and product designers. It also typifies our music company’s current credo during the COVID-19 crisis: #wewillplayon.

HC: How do you think the pandemic will change the HME/rehab technology sector?
Zerbo: I think you will see far more video-based treatment and consulting, that is for sure! But, I also see the same tried and true methods continuing, although I see that coming with many changes in order to protect the health care worker and their patients.

HC: There’s a lot happening in the regulatory scene. What are you watching right now?
Zerbo: Right now, we are following the FDA, Health Canada and the European Union for any updates to regulatory processes. The short-term relaxed regulatory scene is positive, as it allows companies such as ours to shift gears to help a common cause. However, this can also cause issues as a lax regulatory process can result in issues, including quality inconsistencies and/or predatory companies taking advantage of others. We are following the regulatory process as if there was no outbreak.