John Wilkinson (pictured), Chief Executive of Eucomed, has received a special Career award from the International Vascular and Endovascular Course (IVEC) in Milan.

The award recognises the medtech industry’s contribution to the development of vascular and endovascular surgery.

IVEC Chairman Giorgio Biasi presented the award to John Wilkinson to “honour the excellence of a distinguished scientist and eminent colleague who has contributed enormously in promoting, divulging and spreading culture, development and achievements in the field of vascular and endovascular techniques.”

Following the award presentation, Wilkinson gave the Edmondo Malan Lecture on ‘Development and Achievements in Endovascular Procedures as a Result of a Continuous and Ingenious Co-operation between Physicians and Industry’.

He discussed the long history of collaborative working between clinicians and industry over 200 years, with ideas from doctors and surgeons being developed by companies, culminating in such revolutionary devices as the drug-eluting stent.

Wilkinson also emphasised the need for innovation to be built on a platform of ethical interaction and transparency, and for industry to support education and training in the delivery of new therapies.

Finally, he drew attention to the demographic and economic challenges facing Europe’s health systems, and called for a collaborative approach between all stakeholders to support innovative solutions to these urgent problems.

Eucomed is the leading European medical technology industry association. It represents 4,500 designers, manufacturers and suppliers of medical technologies.

European medtech industry association Eucomed will launch a conference pre-vetting system in early 2012 to assess all third-party educational conferences and congresses sponsored by its members.

The new system is the first of its kind in the healthcare industry, because its assessments will be binding.

The independent Eucomed Compliance Panel will assess educational events for compliance with the association’s Code of Ethical Business Practice in relation to such factors as scientific content, location and venue.

Each outcome will be made publicly available via a dedicated website, and relevant stakeholders will be notified.

The Eucomed Code allows member companies to sponsor third-party educational events such as medical congresses, seminars and training courses, subject to restrictions. Until now, members had to establish their compliance independently. The new system will apply a uniform compliance determination process to all Eucomed members.

“The conference pre-vetting system is a unique initiative in the healthcare sector,” said John McLoughlin, Chairman of the Compliance Panel. “It will be supervised solely by our Panel, which is a completely independent body. Eucomed members are required to follow the assessments.

“If a conference receives a negative assessment, Eucomed members may not sponsor either the conference or individual healthcare professionals who wish to attend the conference.”

John Wilkinson, Eucomed’s Chief Executive, added that the new system “is not only necessary for our members in their day-to-day activities but is also key to increasing the consistency and transparency of industry behaviour.”

Eucomed intends to give key stakeholders an opportunity to comment on the assessment criteria.

The pre-vetting system will begin as a pilot and be reviewed 6–12 months after its launch. It will be the sole responsibility of the Compliance Panel.

Eucomed represents 22,500 designers, manufacturers and suppliers of medical technologies in Europe.

The medtech industry must focus on meeting the cost-efficiency and health outcome needs of health systems through a value-based innovation strategy, according to a new report from industry association Eucomed.

The European medical technology industry association launched its five-year industry strategy report ‘Contract for a Healthy Future’ at the MedTech Forum in Brussels, outlining the industry’s role in guiding healthcare systems towards a sustainable future.

Eucomed called on the medtech industry to change its business model and mindset, but also called on healthcare payers and policy-makers to embrace the concept of value-based innovation.

A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), sponsored by Eucomed, opened the MedTech Forum. ‘Future-proofing Western Europe’s healthcare’ examined how healthcare systems need to change in order to square the circle of growing demand and tighter budgets.

The EIU report argued that Europe’s healthcare systems need to become more efficient, effective, integrated and informed. The medtech industry can support these developments with evidence-based technologies – providing not just the technologies but the evidence base to support their implementation.

The Eucomed report emphasised that the medtech industry needs to change and will deliver and demonstrate solutions to meet the cost-efficiency and health outcome needs of payers and policymakers in order to ensure sustainable, accessible healthcare and healthy ageing for the population.

However, Eucomed emphasised, other healthcare stakeholders must also reconsider their role: for value-based innovation to have full impact, policy-makers must develop better cost models and abandon silo-based budgeting, while payers must prioritise value – in terms of productivity and efficiency – rather than price.

“We have to rethink our healthcare systems in Europe and steer them back onto a sustainable path,” said Eucomed Chairman Guy Lebeau (pictured below). “As an industry, innovation has always been at the heart of what we do. But the future will demand a different kind of innovative thinking from all stakeholders in our economies. We will take the first step and deliver value-based innovations that deliver a demonstrable positive return on investment in healthy life years for citizens.”

John Wilkinson, Chief Executive of Eucomed, added: “It is short-sighted to cut back on medical technologies when health budgets are squeezed, especially when you consider that 70% of health spending is consumed by personnel and hospital organisation. Compare that with medical technology which accounts for less than 5%.

“If the industry delivers its promise and enables healthcare systems to become more productive and efficient, governments should reward us and invest in the right technologies.”

More information on these ideas can be found on a dedicated website, Reforming Healthcare in Europe, launched by Eucomed.

Eucomed represents 22,500 designers, manufacturers and suppliers of medical technologies. SMEs make up more than 80% of this sector.

Guy Lebeau

The challenges faced by the medtech industry during the recession do not mean it has failed to respond to economic pressures, European medical device industry association Eucomed has argued.

Rather, the association said, they reflect the flawed strategies adopted by governments and health systems in cutting short-term costs.

A letter by Eucomed Chief Executive John Wilkinson to the Financial Times, responding to its claim that the medical device industry is suffering a “cyclical” market downturn, emphasised the potential of innovative medical technology to provide solutions to health economic problems.

FT columnist ‘Lex’ stated that the revenue growth of major medical devices such as pacemakers, orthopaedic implants and cardiac stents has declined in recent years, adding the comment:

“The industry once seemed to have it all: a demographic tailwind from an ageing rich world, defensiveness, exciting scientific innovation. Yet share performance in the past two years has been mixed, with firms devicesfocused on pacemakers/defibrillators and stents underperforming badly.”

While noting that clinical issues have affected sales of stents among other products, Lex argued that the industry is “surprisingly cyclical”: the economic downturn has affected it directly through impact on insurance, jobs and hospital budgets. Finally he suggested that economic recovery may leave the industry still struggling, as healthcare providers and patients have learned to get by without its expensive solutions.

Wilkinson challenged this passive view of medtech as a victim of economic forces. He pointed out that “hospital stays have reduced by 50% in 20 years” as a result of medical technologies, reducing the cost of delivering care while improving clinical outcomes. The industry will benefit profoundly from the current “reorientation towards demonstrating economic impacts and broader social value”.

However, he noted, the uptake of new medical technologies is being negatively affected by the “increased rationing of care” and the failure of many health systems to “wholly assess the full value of medical technology innovation”, leading them to erect barriers to innovation in the interests of “short-term cost control rather than long-term efficiency and effectiveness.”

 
John Wilkinson