Managing Director

Simon joined Numed in 1988 and has over 25 years experience working at Numed within the Hospital and Primary Care market, originally starting as a sales representative selling and supporting UK NHS Hospitals. Simon has two children and in lives in the Peak District. He enjoys the outdoor life and out of work you can either find him on the golf course or a tennis court.

Director

Numed’s origins can be traced back to 1977. My own career in healthcare technology goes back more than 10 years before this date.

With our long established history and our invaluable experience gained in both Secondary and Primary Care the Numed of today is a little different from what it was originally! 

My role and responsibilities have evolved over the 40 years from starting my career in healthcare. Initially employed in Medical Physics as an Electronics Technician in 1964, at the Cardiology Department of our local Teaching Hospital, to being Director & Chairman here at Numed. After initially starting in medical electronic servicing and technical design I became involved in implantable cardiac pacemaker technology at the hospital – these were very  exciting pioneering days. In 1971 the opportunity arose for me to leave the hospital and join a Dutch owned company, Vitatron Medical, who were manufacturers of scientific equipment, now wishing to manufacture and supply a new analysable implantable heart pacemaker to a limited number of specialist centres and hospitals in Europe and the UK. Employed as their UK Technical Consultant, a sort of Technical Trouble Shooter. I travelled extensively visiting all the major UK Implanting Centres meeting many talented Consultant Cardiologists, gifted Physicians, talented Senior Registrars, skilled Technicians, dedicated Nurses. I also had the privilege to meet hundreds of wonderful pacemaker patients and assist in analysing the ongoing performance and stability of their implanted cardiac pacemakers. 

Implantable cardiac pacemakers were very new technology in these early days so reliability was a major concern due to issues with both sporadic battery and random component failure. Pacemaker life times were relatively short, only lasting around 18 to 30 months at best – predicting their failure and natural endpoint was technically quite challenging for me since pacing failure invariably resulted in loss of consciousness, or in certain cases, even the death of a patient. My role in cardiac pacemaker analysis was quite demanding since pacemaker manufacture was ‘somewhere between a science and an art’. Just travelling around the ever growing number of UK implanting centres was becoming a problem. Although I could drive to many centres I learnt to fly and qualified as Private Pilot. It was now possible for me to fly the long distances involved in less time than I could drive. I could see many more patients and doctors in a single day. I flew from either Doncaster Airport or East Midlands airport to airports near UK hospitals in England, Scotland and Wales. These were very busy days and my time away from my family and home was significant, however my lovely wife, Chris, always managed to keep family life going in my frequent absences.

With the advent of the Lithium battery a new opportunity arose in 1977 and I moved again to join CLI UK, a Dutch/UK based healthcare organisation supplying the latest CPI lithium battery powered heart pacemakers and also the St Jude pyrolite carbon heart valves. (CLI eventually became Numed as we are today!) These more expensive hermetically sealed solid state  pacemakers with their lithium batteries offered a much longer implanted life time with greater predicable performance and reliability. In those days the cost of a pacemaker was the same as the heart valves, £995 each, three times the price of a standard mercury battery pacemaker! The lithium powered pacemaker offered operational lifetimes of between 7 or 10 years with the added benefits of reduced repeat surgery for the patient. The lithium battery was a real game changer for cardiac pacing and more and more hospitals then starting successfully implanting lithium powered pacemakers.

My son, Simon joined the Numed Ltd team in 1988. Simon was a keen young and personable 20year old Sales Representative with Numed and this proved to be the best business decision I’ve made in my business life. Simon is now employed as our Managing Director. I was extremely fortunate to have a special, amazing and highly supportive team. The CLI team continued to work successfully for a number of years supplying both cardiac pacemakers, and later, the more expensive Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator known as AICD’s, costing around £9,500 each. Eventually, all UK cardiac pacing was to be undertaken by CPI, the American owned pacemaker manufacturer themselves. Eventually in 1989 my fellow business colleagues, together with the original American and Dutch founders, decided to leave or move on to pursue their own objectives. A complete new start now awaited me. Once again a fresh opportunity arose for me to reorganise, re-consider and carefully evaluate my direction in life, and consequently the future of Numed as a viable healthcare technology company. It was not too long after Simon joined Numed in 1988. By the end of 1989 and a period of intense thought any remaining indecisions about my future and that of Numed Ltd was then decided – all I needed was to find the way forward again, a new beginning. I decided it would be appropriate for me to acquire the remaining part of the CLI UK company and merge it with Numed Ltd. With the help and support of my family I was pleased that Kathy Gill, after a number of absent years, could re-join our new team to take care of customer services in our sales office. Kathy still works with us today… ! My wife Chris (now retired) joined and worked very long hours, looking after all aspects of our book keeping, finances and banking arrangements.   

Ben Shepherd joined Numed in 1990 as our Southern Sales Representative to become a very valuable and successful member of our sales team. Ben is now our UK Sales Manager and also Director for The Vet Channel www.thevetchannel.co.uk  With only around 6 employees we all worked extremely hard in those early years to ensure that the new Numed could survive and grow. Numed went on to acquire an impressive range of high quality diagnostic systems comprising of; Delmar 24hour ECG Holter monitoring systems, Survival Technology Cardiac ECG Event Recorders, the world’s first Hand Held ECG System - Biolog, IEM Ambulatory Blood pressure monitors and the NIRAD External bedside Cardiac Pacemaker. Numed helped pioneer and promote Trans-telephonic ECG Event Recording and Remote Implanted Pacemaker Analysis here in the UK by using Numed’s automated Cardiostation. Numed supplied all these products to nearly all the leading UK hospitals and centres of excellence.  

Later, and with the addition of Craig Hirst, our indispensable General Manager, Numed grew steadily in a tough marketplace. A little later Nick Kenyon joined as our IT Specialist, now our greatly respected Head of Operations, so that we could utilise the efficiency benefits offered via IT systems and computers. In the early 1990’s Simon suggested we might move towards supplying the GP and the Primary Care markets, with a reduction of emphasis on the Secondary Care market. This was a change-of-tack for us but proved to be a good one. Through the new millennium we grew steadily, expanding our product range in Primary Care. My involvement began to gradually shift away from product technical matters to business planning and financial management. We decided that Numed’s objective should be focussed upon delivering high quality diagnostic products together with award winning service and technical support into Primary Care.  Numed’s fundamental mission was, and still is, about maintaining the highest possible levels of customer care and service. It’s my personal belief that Numed as a modern day healthcare supplier is quite unique, as we are an essential and  meaningful part of a complete medical team, responsible for the rapid and accurate diagnosis of a patients illness.

Today Numed employee around 46 people based in 3 separate geographical locations. We employ specialist teams of highly trained individuals to cover all aspects of customer support, including, sales, commercial and technical. With the benefit and expertise of the whole Numed Technical Team, located in Sheffield Ben Shepherd, my son-in-law together with my daughter Kate now successfully jointly operate and manage The Vet Channel based in Ascot. Following several years of successfully marketing the Envisage system we recently launched Envisage Dental, a similar concept but tailored towards educational dental media -another idea which Simon brought to Numed. We have invested our financial and technical resources in creating and supporting Envisage and now with Envisage Dental we hope to see acceptance and growth over time. As a healthcare supplier Numed offer a wide range of services which include; equipment rentals, service loan equipment, full remote and secure IT diagnostic and support services, full equipment maintenance together with servicing and support contracts for all our customers systems and equipment.

Over the many decades we have been in business Numed have experienced major changes in the NHS procurement policy, global economic recessions, drastic healthcare budget restrictions and a continued requirement for Numed to implement and be legally compliant with ever increasing quality management procedures and laws. No one person can do this….it’s a team effort and a positive team attitude that makes the outcome successful. It also makes it possible for me to continue to do what I enjoy most since I have a team of individuals who have followed myself and Numed faithfully throughout my entire career. I wish to thank them all sincerely for this invaluable support and sincerely hope their time and experience at Numed will be as fulfilling and satisfying as mine has been. Over a long period of time I can say that it’s been a most interesting and rewarding journey for me and I feel very privileged to have been a part of progress and the growth of Numed. Throughout my career I have worked alongside some of the most talented, competent and caring professionals in the healthcare industry. I’m exceedingly grateful for a lifetime occupation of engaging and captivating work. I now continue to work alongside all my family and our many other loyal employees. Their unwavering support has been invaluable, always motivating me onwards. The success that I have been enjoyed and been accredited with is purely because of everyone’s commitment and dedication over many years, to myself and Numed – and this includes our many customers. I feel fortunate to be able to share a snapshot of Numed’s birth and onward progress with you. With Simon appointed as our MD and a fully dedicated team of professionals in place we will continue to grow and improve over the coming years. Our  mission and goal remains unchanged, you together with your patients, are the most important and vital ingredient in our business. Thank you for supporting Numed and our Team we hope to continue to support you in the years ahead.

M Kevin Healy Director & Chairman 2018

Head of Business Development

Mark joined the Numed team in 2008. He has an Honours degree in Sports Science and 25 years’ experience in the medical devices sector. Outside of work, he enjoys cycling, walking the two family Golden Retrievers, playing the drums in a covers band, and is a qualified BASI Alpine Skiing Instructor.

Head of Media & Waiting Room Solutions

After completing his studies in Oxford, Ben started working for Numed in 1993. Twenty years later, Ben is now Head of Media & Waiting Room Solutions looking after the sales team and the southern area, covering South Wales and the counties either side of the M4 corridor. With a vast knowledge of non-invasive diagnostics, Ben is passionate about matching the right integrated solution to the customer need. He has also helped to implement Envisage Coda 'Waiting Room TV' into many CCGs including West Berkshire, Haringey, Barnet, Chiltern and Aylesbury. When Ben's not working he's either training for or competing in Triathlon or having fun with the family including their dog Cookie!

Head of IT & Governance

Nick joined Numed in 2003 and has over 25 years experience in IT Networks within the Private Sector. Originally starting as an Avionics Technician within the British Army working on Lynx, Gazelle and Scout aircraft. Nick has two children and in lives in the Pennines, and enjoys the outdoor life. Out of work you can either find him in his garage tinkering with cars or watching MotoGP.

General Manager

Craig joined Numed in 1998 as Product Support Manager, when the Company was a very small team of only 6 people. Prior to this, he studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Sheffield City Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University) before spending almost nine years working in the Medical Physics Department at Sheffield Hospitals, servicing and repairing and range of medical equipment. Out of work, his ambition is to one day complete the restoration of a 1973 Triumph TR6 which he began in 1992 (in the days before family and mortgage arrived)!

Operations Manager

Jason joined Numed in 2007 as a Product Support Technician, he has fufilled many IT roles within Numed and has a real understanding of how to support and care for our customers. Jason was delighted to be promoted to Customer Support Manager in 2013. Out of work (if there is anytime left) Jason enjoys going to gym and spending time with his family and friends.

Sales Development Manager

Mandi joined the Numed Sales Team in October 2010 after working for the NHS in various roles for 18 years. Outside work, Mandi enjoys cooking, dancing, Zumba and boating. All the Numed team appreciates Mandi’s lovely cakes when she decides to bring them into the office.

Digital Projects & Marketing Manager

Andy joined Numed Healthcare in the summer of 2013 and has had a variety of roles in the company , including working in our Customer Support team and as part of The Vet Channel, our veterinary digital signage sister company. He now works as our Marketing Manager, managing our various websites and marketing operations.