To help advance education in the respiratory therapy (RT) profession and honor the life’s work of Robert Kacmarek, PhD, RRT, FCCM, FCCP, FAARC, Dräger is donating a Babylog VN500 ventilator to each RT school throughout Massachusetts. This marks the seventh year of Dräger’s RT school donation program, which began in 2014.

Robert Kacmarek, professor of anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School and the director of respiratory care at Massachusetts General Hospital, dedicated his career to the growth of the respiratory profession, serving as a member of the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) for more than 50 years, writing 19 textbooks, authoring or co-authoring over 300 articles, and presenting more than 700 lectures at respiratory care and medical conferences nationally and worldwide. He passed away on April 1, 2021.

“Bob was a humble giant who advocated for the profession and was world- renowned for his teaching. Words cannot express the loss that this profession will feel with his passing,” says Jason Moury, MPH, RRT, president of the Massachusetts Society for Respiratory Care (MSRC), in a press release.

“We cannot thank Dräger enough for its donation. We appreciate all that the company has done in support of the RT profession and schools, including this latest contribution to Massachusetts RT programs.”