The Medical Device Business Journal — Medical Device News & Articles | MassDevice
Fogarty (l) and Abele
The FDA isn’t capable of living up to its mandate to balance risk and safety for patients, according to medical device legend Dr. Tom Fogarty, a serial medtech entrepreneur who’s also a consultant for the federal watchdog agency.
"Sunlight is the best disinfectant," at least according to former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, and the medical device industry’s main lobbying group seems to agree.
In a letter to U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the Advanced Medical Technology Assn. urged lawmakers to fully implement the Physician Payments Sunshine Provision of the Social Security Act and the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act.
European medical technology industry lobby Eucomed launched its 5-year strategy for the future of the European health care system today at the Economist Intelligence Unit’s med-tech forum.
The report, "Contract for a Healthy Future," highlights ways Western Europe can future-proof its health care systems as demand grows and budgets shrink.
The medical device sector was on the rebound in 2010 after a less-than-stellar 2009 performance, according to the latest report from industry lobby AdvaMed.
Revenues for publicly traded companies grew to $205 billion in 2010, a 4 percent increase from the $197 billion reported in 2009, which was a 0.1 percent slide from the prior year.
The medical device industry will be looking to deliver a message when it gathers in Washington, D.C. at the end of the month for the annual conference of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, or AdvaMed.
The industry is not only critical to health of people, but to a healthy economy as well.
Medical device makers dropped at least $623,250 on the 2011-2012 election cycle, according to a MassDevice examination of a federal database that tracks corporate donations to legislators and political actions committees, known as PACs.
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) alone accounted for more than 45 percent of the donations, spending a total of $282,000 — nearly $100,000 to individual members of Congress and the rest to various PACs, according to the Federal Election Commission’s online database.
The medical device industry’s Washington lobby called for the creation of a special government office with oversight of “major proposed and current government policies to assure that they support medical innovation.”
The Advanced Medical Technology Assn., in its “innovation Pathway” proposal, called for the office to operate out of the White House. The idea is to create a central crossing point for concerns about policy decisions being made across the government. The proposal comes as part of a series of recommendations the industry council is packaging as its competitive agenda for the American medical technology industry.
ProPublica, the online investigative website, carried a revealing set of stories Thursday documenting the financial ties between the Heart Rhythm Society, which represents the nation’s 5,100 cardiologists who specialize in arrythmias, and the medical device industry, which manufactures the stents, pacemakers and other widgets designed to protect people with serious heart disease from fatal heart attacks.
Former President George W. Bush will address the annual conference of the country’s largest medical device industry council, in a meeting of two parties that probably wish it was still 2004.
The Advanced Medical Technology Assn. said today that the 43rd POTUS has accepted its invitation to provide the keynote address at AdvaMed 2011, the council’s annual fall gathering. He’ll join Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush as former presidents who have addressed the conference.
CBS news anchor Katie Couric had the honor at last year’s event, which drew about 1,700 attendees, according to planners.
The Accountable Care Organization mandate in the health care reform law needs some fine-tuning before it takes effect, according to industry lobby AdvaMed, and could use an independent oversight board to make sure the system doesn’t stint on care for Medicare patients.
The Accountable Care Organization initiative aims to shift the business of health care delivery from a fee-for-service model to one that pays hospitals and care providers based on quality of care, coordination of care and cost-effectiveness. It’s slated to kick off on a voluntary basis Jan. 1.
A trade group representing hospital group purchasing organizations lambasted Medtronic Inc.’s (NYSE:MDT) cancellation of more than $2 billion worth of contracts with GPO Novation LLC.
Health Industry Group Purchasing Assn. president Curtis Rooney called the Medtronic moves "nothing short of an attack on America’s hospitals" in a statement released today.
