By Stewart Eisenhart, Emergo Group
Nine medical device industry associations have signed on to the Global Compliance Statement on Interactions Between Medical Technology Companies and Healthcare Professionals (HCPs), a document intended to promote ethically sound interactions between the groups’ member firms and health care providers.
The Advanced Medical Technology Assn. (AdvaMed), Eucomed and the European Diagnostic Manufacturers Assn. (EDMA) first signed on to the document in 2010; six additional groups — the European Coordination Committee of the Radiological, Electromedical and Healthcare IT Industry (COCIR), the International Medical Devices Manufacturers Assn. (IMEDA), MEDEC, the Medical Technology Assn. of Australia (MTAA), the Medical Technology Assn. of New Zealand and the South African Medical Device Industry Assn. (SAMED) — signed the document during the 2011 International Medical Device Industry Compliance Conference in London, according to a Eucomed press release.
Specific efforts the associations have agreed to undertake include pushing their respective members to adopt compliance policies and procedures in line with industry codes; providing guidance to industry regarding ethical business conduct when engaging with health care professionals; keeping members informed of relevant laws, regulations and professional codes that impact how firms interact with health care professionals; and collaborating to increase adoption of ethical codes of conduct on a global scale.
Buy-in of the global compliance statement among a significant number of trade groups representing various medical device markets no doubt reflects a more advanced and nuanced level of maturity of the industry as a whole — but also the need for member companies to establish adequate processes and procedures in the face of growing regulatory interest.
Stewart Eisenhart covers medical device regulatory affairs for Emergo Group.
