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Ever since the end of WWII, the reigning clinical philosophy was one whereby there was no limit on medical treatment. From the 80s onwards, this philosophy shifted towards a more balanced approach whereby the benefit of the treatment had to outweigh the potential risks associated with it, with evidence-based medicine being the concept used to assess a new treatment.

In October last year, Eucomed published a press release to introduce to its broader membership and stakeholders the launch of a new “Conference vetting system” in 2012. Aimed to simplify decision-making for Eucomed members by providing clear approvals on sponsorship of events, this unique initiative in our industry has already interested the media, including an article in the Financial Times.

Most of you know that John Wilkinson has left the position of Eucomed Chief Executive at the end of last year. And even though John’s decision was announced already in June of 2011, as I write this now, more than six months later, it still feels as if he informed me of his intentions only yesterday. Fond of the Brussels bubble while at the same time being excited about the European and global perspective of the job, I am sure it was by no means an easy decision.

Since the French authorities made their announcement just prior to Christmas, the PIP case has generated a large amount of press and political attention. Quite rightly, the main focus is on the women affected and on governments providing the right health advice and appropriate follow-up. As I am writing this posting a couple of days after we released our first statement, I understand that the European Commission is to seek an independent scientific opinion on the human health risks of silicone breast implants.

Incontinence is a condition that often gets associated with age. When we think about incontinence we tend to think first about elderly people and that’s normal because over 60% of nursing home residents are affected with some kind of incontinence (from mild to severe). However, European studies estimate that between 4% and 8% of the total population are affected, regardless of age. As our populations grow older, it is fair to say that more and more people will suffer from it. This could be your neighbour’s condition and you wouldn’t even know about it!

My pulse is already racing at the prospect of this year’s MedTech Forum. The sequence of events following the 2008-2009 banking crisis has played out rather predictably with a broader economic crisis emerging in 2010 and only this year has the full force of public sector impacts been seen as the spending or money printing spree used to avoid deep recession has shifted to efforts to rebalance economies and pay back the debts that were created by ten years of fiscal laxity.

Europe is an important and continuously growing market for medical technology products. Driven by budgetary pressure on the payer and provider levels as well as by strong competitive dynamics, the commercial climate for established medical technology companies is, however, deteriorating. The recent industry survey MedTech Barometer 2011 conducted by us (and with ‘us’, I mean global strategy and marketing consultancy Simon-Kucher & Partners) confirms the presence of increasing commercial challenges but still provides an overall positive short-term business outlook. Yet the longer-term outlook is less positive and suggests that in order to remain successful in the European market place, established players will have to adapt their way of doing business in the future.

Next week, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies will change the way they interact with consumers on Facebook. These changes are occurring, not based on new communications strategies or industry regulations, but because Facebook itself is changing its policies.

At 95 billion Euros the European medical technology market and industry is far from insignificant. Its impact on the lives of patients combined with the ability of health systems to operate efficiently dwarfs the value of the market while the industry has spawned hundreds of early stage companies year on year. Despite its size the medical technology market is less than 5% of total health spend and that figure appears to be declining.