The group’s board of directors unanimously elected McEvoy as its chair during its quarterly meeting yesterday. She is the first woman to serve as chair at the major U.S. medical technology trade association, which was founded in 1974. (Pam Bailey, who is board chair at medtech contract manufacturing giant Integer, was AdvaMed’s CEO from 1999 to 2005.)
McEvoy succeeds Abiomed’s former CEO Michael Minogue. She starts a two-year term as board chair at the same time that major medtech companies such as Johnson & Johnson face a host of challenges. Health provider customers in the U.S. and elsewhere are grappling with staffing shortages and operational challenges. There are macroeconomic headwinds, and the Chinese government is seeking to hold down healthcare costs.
Some companies have demonstrated resilience, but MassDevice has also reported on more than 19,000 medtech workers let go across the industry since mid-2022.
McEvoy was upbeat about the future during a pre-announcement interview with MassDevice: “I think that medtech innovations are gonna define the future of healthcare. … I think that right now we’re in the middle of future-proofing the industry.”
Minimally invasive surgery, artificial intelligence, using medtech to bring high-quality healthcare to more people around the world — all play into what McEvoy sees as an interesting intersection for the industry.
AdvaMed’s goals in the coming years
When it comes to priorities, McEvoy has three for AdvaMed:
- Build a more resilient healthcare system through policy enhancement and improved supply chain operations;
- Drive digital transformation in medtech through ethical policies that promote the responsible use of data;
- Ensure the medtech industry reflects the patients it serves through programs that increase diverse representation and continue to improve diversity in clinical research.
McEvoy thinks the COVID-19 pandemic taught medical device companies that they could come together to help health providers solve challenges through technological innovations, education and more.
“We stood up clinical guidelines around how to safely reenter hospital systems. We stood up teams around all the testing protocols. So I would say our muscles got fitter as an industry around how we can come together to really strengthen the resiliency of healthcare systems,” McEvoy said.
More digital answers in medtech could also boost healthcare outcomes, free up time for doctors to do their jobs, and improve people’s experience with healthcare, according to McEvoy.
As for diversity inside medtech and beyond, McEvoy said the industry needs to be more representative of the patient population and the clinicians it works with — resulting in a cascade of improvements.
When told that only 23% of the executives on the leadership pages of the 100 largest medical device companies are women, McEvoy said: “I always say, ‘Start with your own house and get your house in order.’ And so we’re starting with a commitment to improve representation within the medtech industry.”
