Carol Boyle, an experienced New Zealand Registered Occupational Therapist, joins Active Healthcare to make a difference in the industry. Carol joins Active Healthcare after working as a Community Occupational Therapist for the Waikato District Health Board for 16 years – making her highly experienced for her new role as Product Specialist. Carol will be covering the Central North Island delivering her expert services to the region.
Carol enjoys getting hands-on with Active Healthcare products and is excited to share her product knowledge. Active Healthcare has long supported Occupational Therapists, like Carol, helping to provide a range of intuitive solutions for different needs.
Carol says Occupational Therapists usually know what their clients need, but often do not have the time to really look into all the detail of available equipment, so may struggle to find the solution which ‘ticks all the boxes’ for what a client needs. That’s where Carol hopes to help the most in her role of OT product specialist – being a resource for OT’s and consumers. By combining clinical experience, in-depth product knowledge, and problem-solving to find the equipment solution which works best for the client. Working collaboratively with OTs to meet new patient needs is a priority for Carol who resonates with Active Healthcare’s mission “we care about people being active”.
“With this new role at Active Healthcare, I want to help more people. I love problem-solving as well as educating and getting out and about,” Carol explains.
Prior to her time at WDHB Carol worked overseas after graduating from university. “I started working in 2002 in brain injury rehabilitation and moved to the UK and worked as a Community Occupational Therapist for the NHS. I spent just over a year there and came back to New Zealand to start a family and have worked in the community ever since.”
Carol’s experience provides valuable industry insights, and she has already identified opportunities as well as product gaps, she explains: “It’s not until you’re working in the industry that you realise there are things that we still need out there and that there are gaps.”
It is these insights that will help Active Healthcare to deliver better products and services to the market. ”Suppliers see the things that are out there, but I can identify the things that aren’t even available,” says Carol, who is understands the challenge of both staying safe during the pandemic and providing continuous support to patients.
Carol is already excited about the products available and has been discovering more about them, she explains; “I recently found the cocoon chair has adaptable lift settings to provide a more vertical lift for clients that have significant lower limb weakness or pain. Having chairs that provide this style of lift meets a need, and this chair provides a more cost-effe
ctive solution than other chairs in the market that do the same.”
“I’m also really excited about the Care of Sweden mattresses with the pulsation technology. It’s something that I had little awareness of and is an amazing step forward for pressure relief.”
“I also like the Raizer II, a great way to safely get people up off the floor after a fall. It is a really simple but effective product.”
In the short term, Carol is dedicated to learning the products inside and out. And in the future, she wants to be able to work alongside OTs to actively problem-solve for their clients. If you would like to speak with Carol please do not hesitate to reach out, Carol will also be joining Active Healthcare at the various roadshows happening throughout the year, so please come and say hi.
