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I put it down to Irish politeness to always say “no” first when asked if we want something and to follow up with a “yes” when asked the second time. “Will you have a cup of Lisbon tea?Oh no thank you, I’ve had quite enough already.Are you sure? I’ve just made some and I can […]

Returning to the daily routine after a long, and hot, summer break is always characterised by mixed feelings. Part wishes the languorous morning routines to carry on whilst other forces bring a refreshed mind optimistic about the challenges ahead. This morning’s bright and early start in Brussels was illuminated by two articles in the Financial […]

The arcane world of credit default swaps may seem a very curious subject to stimulate the mind of a life-long medical technology man. My thoughts turned to these strange and questionable instruments, which appear to be one of the roots of the financial crisis, during a week when they were seldom far from the front […]

Browsing the news pages of the web I came across an article in a journal that I am not familiar with from the USA, the grandly titled U.S. News & World Report. The report headed off on a familiar and now even more fashionable track of squarely identifying our industry as the villains of the […]

Talking about the role of the EU in the developing world EC Director General for Development Stefano Manservisi described the new approach to health development policy on a global level: “From donorship to partnership”. He explained that access to medicine needs to be viewed as not only provision of medicines but rather the ability to […]

On Thursday 11 June, I attended, as part of the EULAR conference in Copenhagen – Europe’s largest conference on Rheumatology – the session “Structure modification in osteoarthritis: Time to update the guidelines”. What became really apparent was that rheumatologists from Europe and North-America are seriously concerned about the exponentially increasing prevalence and incidence of osteoarthritis […]

Is innovation still affordable with increasingly strained healthcare budgets? How can medical innovations continued to be financed? Panelist of the round table of distinguished speakers Member of the European Parliament Jorgo Chatzimarkakis made a statement which nicely complements the study released by AdvaMed only 2 days ago. He said that innovation does not increase costs […]

Listening to a distinguished panel of experts chaired by Bernard Merkel of DG Sanco I get the impression that things are moving to raise the level of patient safety. I was interested to learn that DG Sanco has commissioned a study to rate Member States in their efforts to combat patient safety. This “black list” […]

The sweltering heat and fever pitch of the football supporters contrasts starkly with the measured debate at the 2009 International Medical Device Industry Compliance, Regulatory and Intellectual Property Conference here in Rome. The Champions League final sees football shirted supporters rubbing shoulders with suited captains of industry in an unlikely melange. One item of news […]