Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, head of the FDA’s medical device division, is planning to be in San Francisco in September for the last in a series of town hall-style public meetings for 2011.
The west-coast meeting is the last in a trio of events during which agency officials engage in public dialogue regarding issues of concern to the medical device community. This year’s other meetings were held in Orlando, Fla., in May and in Dallas, Texas, in March.
Shuren, who leads the FDA’s Center for Devices & Radiological Health, will address the watchdog agency’s "strategic priorities" for fiscal 2011 and then take questions from the audience, according to a press release.
More details about the meeting, slated for 8 a.m. until noon at the Embassy Suites hotel can be found on the FDA’s website.
In a visit to Boston last summer for a similar meeting, Shuren said President Barack Obama has given the agency free rein to police the medical device industry as it sees fit.
"I have had absolutely no pressure or pushback from the administration. Even the commissioner of FDA [Dr. Margaret Hamburg], has, I think much to her credit, let the center do its own assessment, come back with its own recommendations," he said. "I can tell you the things that we want to put out for the public have her full support in moving forward."
