Serge Bernasconi

Europe is known for its excellent startup ecosystem. Moreover, the medtech industry in Europe is made up of 95% SMEs. If we want the innovation successes of past and present to continue well into the future, it is critical that the bigger medtech players, and the financial and investment ecosystem keep taking the pulse of European medtech startups.

This time last year, I wrote a blogpost about the priorities MedTech Europe would be working on in 2014. This year, I’ve decided to take a different approach. Based on what I see, hear and read every day, I’ll outline what I believe to be the major medtech trends, topics and evolutions we’ll be talking […]

You may have heard recently that the leadership of EDMA, Eucomed and MedTech Europe made some very important recommendations to their memberships about how to improve the EDMA and Eucomed Codes of Ethical Business Practice, which together we’ll ultimately refer to as the MedTech Europe Code of Ethical Business Practice.

With the summer holidays well and truly behind us, and temperatures outside gradually dropping, I am sure the temperature inside the EU institutions is rising as the EU machine is picking up steam again. Commission portfolios have been handed out, the Commissioners-designate will soon be vetted, and certain competences are being moved from one Directorate-General […]

The prevailing thought still today is that medtech is driving rising healthcare expenditure. More and more research and publications are finding this not to be the case. The medtech industry is happy to have a fair and balanced discussion on the value of its products, but to do so, everyone must look beyond tomorrow, beyond […]

I just read the minutes of the joint meeting EDMA, Eucomed, COCIR and EUnetHTA had last May and it got me thinking: why try to put a square peg in a round hole? Medical devices, in vitro diagnostics, imaging equipment and pharmaceuticals – while all health technologies – are very different in nature, in their mode of action, in the benefits they bring to people’s health and well-being, and in the way they contribute to sustainable healthcare. Because of these and many more differences, trying to apply a Health Technology Assessment (HTA) model designed for pharmaceuticals to other health technologies is like trying to shove a square peg into a round hole – it won’t work.

Tonight, Brazil and Croatia will kick off what promises to be a great month for football fans the world over. And what will make it extra special for us in the MedTech industry is that the first kick will be given by a paralysed teenager. This remarkable feat is made possible thanks to an exo-skeleton […]

We’re right in the middle of a year of change in the EU. Europe has begun voting and EU politics may look quite different as a result. New things and new faces may be on the horizon but that doesn’t mean that work has stopped on a file of great importance to the Union’s more […]

Safe and accurate In Vitro Diagnostics (IVDs) are essential to a safe, efficient and effective healthcare system. Policymakers recognise this and that’s why they have included a clinical evidence requirement in the upcoming revision of the IVD Directive (IVDD). Because IVDs play such a pivotal role in the treatment pathway of patients, we, the IVD […]