Jason Ram, CEO of Airglove: a mission to change difficult IV access

Airglove display with VeinTrain training materials at a vascular access event
Airglove and VeinTrain: sharing practical tools and training for better vascular access

Meet Jason Ram, CEO of Airglove Medical, and discover the drive behind his mission to improve difficult IV access and assist one billion cannulations.

"Without IV access, results are delayed, treatment is pushed back and outcomes worsen."

Jason Ram, CEO, Airglove Medical Ltd

That is the problem Jason Ram keeps returning to. Not technology for its own sake, but what happens to a person when a vein cannot be accessed: another needle, another wait, rising anxiety and treatment that cannot begin when it should.

In Episode 7 of the Confidence to Thrive podcast, host Christopher Cloke Browne speaks with Jason about the journey behind Airglove, the realities of difficult intravenous access and an ambition that is striking in its scale: to assist one billion cannulations globally.

The episode reveals more than a product story. It shows the drive of someone who has spent years in vascular access, has seen the problem from inside healthcare and believes that a simple intervention can make a meaningful difference to patients and clinicians.

A career shaped by vascular access

Jason does not approach difficult IV access as a distant commercial problem. In the podcast he describes his own vascular-access journey and the experience that led him towards Airglove.

That background comes through in the way he talks about the issue. His focus is not confined to whether a cannula is eventually inserted. He connects access with the complete patient pathway: whether results are available, whether medicines and fluids can be given, whether treatment stays on schedule and how the experience affects the person waiting.

It is a practical, systems-minded view, but also a deeply human one. Difficult access can be normalised as part of a busy clinical day. Jason refuses to accept that it should be normal for the patient.

From an NHS request to a new version of Airglove

The Airglove story, as Jason recounts it, began with an NHS innovation request at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells in 2009. The challenge was straightforward to describe but difficult to solve: could there be a better, more controlled way to prepare veins before access?

The first version of Airglove was launched in 2018. Jason explains that Version 2 was not developed simply to refresh the product. It was shaped by clinical feedback and by learning from the way the device was used in practice.

That willingness to listen is one of the strongest features of his story. The journey is not presented as a single bright idea arriving fully formed. It is a long process of development, feedback, evidence gathering and refinement.

Airglove uses controlled warm air delivered around the hand and forearm to support venodilation before venepuncture or cannulation. The technology is deliberately simple from the user's perspective, but that simplicity sits on top of years of work.

A partnership built on people and shared visibility

VeinTrain founder Sarah Phillips first met Airglove Founder Director Gio Benedetti at Arab Health in Dubai, around 2017. Sarah remembers being excited by the idea and by the team's determination to turn a practical innovation into something clinicians could encounter, understand and use.

When Airglove later joined VeinTrain's partner community, Sarah got to know Sheena Jack and the wider team through onboarding. Since then, VeinTrain has regularly shared Airglove news and engaged with the team's content. It is a practical expression of partnership: useful work creates more impact when people help it travel.

"Great things need sharing, and partnership is the way to go. When good training and useful innovation reach more clinicians, everyone wins."

Sarah Phillips, Founder, VeinTrain

Sarah was delighted to hear of Jason Ram's appointment as Chief Executive Officer. She sees his energy, vascular-access experience and commercial drive as important in helping Airglove move beyond invention and into wider awareness.

Airglove is now increasingly visible in company news, clinical case studies and professional conversations across oncology, haematology and vascular access. In Sarah's words, "it is popping up all over". That visibility reflects the work of Jason, Gio, Sheena and the wider Airglove team to help services understand what the device is and where it may fit.

Why oncology comes first

Jason gives particular attention to oncology, haematology and related services. These are settings where patients may need venous access repeatedly over a long course of care. Veins can become increasingly precious, while the emotional impact of another difficult procedure accumulates.

His concern is not only the failed attempt. It is the treatment journey around it.

In a later statement about Airglove's mission, Jason described the aim as making a difference "in a small but mighty way". He also spoke about protecting precious veins and reducing anxiety. That combination captures his personality well: ambitious about scale, but grounded in a very specific moment between a patient and a clinician.

The technology is intended to make that moment better. Jason's broader commitment is to help prevent the consequences that flow from it becoming harder than it needs to be.

Simplicity as a route to equity

At 13:43, the episode turns to an idea that appears central to Jason's thinking: simplicity can be a route to greater equity in healthcare.

Sophisticated technology has an important place in vascular access, particularly for patients with difficult access. But specialist equipment, expertise and escalation services are not available everywhere. A solution that is straightforward, portable and accessible may be usable across a wider range of clinical settings.

Jason's argument is not that one technology replaces clinical skill or every other approach. It is that useful innovation has to work in the real world. If it is too complex, too difficult to introduce or available only in a small number of highly resourced settings, its reach will always be limited.

That is where his commercial ambition and his patient commitment meet. Scale is not discussed simply as market growth. It is presented as the number of people whose experience could be improved.

The mission: one billion cannulations

Jason describes Airglove's current mission as helping to assist one billion cannulations globally.

It is an intentionally bold number. It communicates impatience with small change and confidence that the problem is much larger than any single hospital, specialty or health system.

His plans reflect that scale. In the podcast he talks about deepening work with NHS organisations, collecting more data, strengthening regulatory and compliance foundations and expanding into the United States, Australia and Europe.

None of that is quick work. Medical-device development requires patience, evidence, regulation and persistence. Jason's enthusiasm is balanced by a clear recognition that credibility must be built. The ambition may be global, but the route towards it is methodical.

In his own words, the journey runs "from our NHS origins to our current mission to assist 1 billion cannulations, globally".

Innovation should be judged by what changes for the patient

The podcast is at its strongest when it links innovation to lived experience.

For the patient, success may mean fewer attempts, less fear and treatment beginning without avoidable delay. For the clinician, it may mean a more prepared vessel and a better chance of completing the procedure. For the organisation, it may mean less wasted time and fewer disruptions to patient flow.

Those outcomes still depend on the clinical context. Warming is one possible adjunct, not a universal answer. Patient assessment, local guidance, practitioner capability, device selection and escalation remain important. Published evidence should also be read with attention to population and study design.

But Jason's central point remains compelling: difficult IV access should not be treated as an unavoidable inconvenience when practical innovation may improve the experience.

Drive, optimism and the "Veinguard" idea

Jason's public language is energetic. He invites people to "be part of the Vanguard" and calls them "Veinguards". Behind the wordplay is a serious attempt to build a community around vessel protection and better preparation for access.

It reflects the personality heard through the episode: optimistic, commercially ambitious and determined to make the issue visible. He wants clinicians, healthcare leaders and partners to see difficult access not as a small procedural irritation, but as a patient-outcome and service-flow problem worth solving.

There is also a generosity to the way the mission is framed. Airglove is positioned as contributing to good work already taking place, rather than claiming that nothing existed before it. The aim is to make vein preparation a better and more standardised process and to help as many people as possible.

A small intervention with a large ambition

The Airglove story began with a practical NHS problem. Years later, it has become a global mission.

What holds those two ends of the story together is Jason Ram's conviction that the experience of difficult access can change. His commitment is visible in the long development timeline, the response to clinical feedback, the emphasis on further evidence and regulation, and the determination to reach far beyond the early oncology setting.

The number - one billion cannulations - is deliberately enormous. The human unit of change is very small: one patient, one clinician, one better attempt.

That may be the clearest expression of Jason's drive. He is pursuing scale without losing sight of the individual moment that made the work matter in the first place.

Listen and explore

Evidence and editorial context

Airglove and mission statements in this article are attributed to Jason Ram, the episode description or Airglove. NICE's medtech innovation briefing described the technology and the evidence available at the time, while noting limitations in the evidence base. This independent VeinTrain commentary is not a product endorsement and does not replace local clinical guidance or the manufacturer's instructions for use.