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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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

An exclusive roundtable hosted by Johnson & Johnson during this year’s Hauptstadtkongress debated the question whether the current healthcare system in Germany should compromise between the need to standardize treatments due to scarce resources and increasingly informed patients demanding the best treatment possible. Although panelists agreed that Germany may be leading in terms of standards […]

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 […]

Sitting in the crowded main conference hall of Berlin International Congress Center (ICC) on the opening day of Germany’s largest health policy conference, the so-called Hauptstadtkongress, I am keen to see where senior government officials see the healthcare system headed. The conference center breathes the atmosphere of a 70s sci-fi movie. I am listening to […]

It takes very little to persuade me to visit Prague. It is one of the gems of Europe. On this occasion, though, I had little opportunity to enjoy the scenic beauty of the city as I arrived at 1.00 am and spent the day in an ornate, but windowless, ballroom in a classic early 20th […]

The EPC organised on May 6th a policy dialogue with the World Bank on the topic: “Russia in the global economic storm” and presented its latest Economic Report dated March 2009 and available here. The numbers of the World Bank, even though considered by the key note as “educated guesses” are still the best available […]