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Medicine became evidence-based a long time ago and rightfully so. So why is it that policy decisions are, still today, far from evidence-based in Europe? Why are healthcare managers and decision makers still relying upon short-term cost containment objectives when it comes to access, regulation and evaluation of new technologies?

As I was commuting back to Brussels last week, a copy of The Economist laid out in front of me, my eye was immediately drawn to the title of that week’s Leader. Who wouldn’t be inclined to read on when an enticing header such as “Life should be cheap” is staring right at you. Intrigued […]

Yesterday, we, at Eucomed, had our Christmas party (Happy Christmas everybody and a big thank you to all the Eucomed members and staff for everything in 2010!!). And while thinking back at yesterday’s little get-together, it’s dawning on me that with 2011 just around the corner we will be just over two and half years since the original public consultation on the recast of the EU medical devices legislation.

In a time when much health industry focus is on the European Commission’s Health Directorate, DG SANCO, EU Commissioner for Research Máire Geoghegan-Quinn chose Covidien’s 20 year celebration of their Galway, Ireland, facility (congratulations to all at Covidien) to emphasise again the value of the Medical Technology industry to Europe and the huge policy and funding support that she and her Directorate, DG Research, provide to the sector.

Sitting on the tram this morning, flicking through my e-mails and preparing for the busy day ahead, I began to muse on the incredible impact that information technology has had on my life. Doing this sort of communication was inconceivable even when I had my first management role. My own personal secretary was highly skilled […]

The blogosphere has been driven into a foment over the last week or so by a paper by Groeneveld et al entitled ‘Increasing Use of Cardiovascular Devices and Rising Health Costs’. Its conclusions are interesting but, I suggest, not conclusive of anything which should prompt policy makers to ask further questions. Discounted for inflation the […]

Watching TV the other night I came across an excellent set of ‘reportages’ into the health sector.

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 […]

Sitting on Boston’s south shore, the John F. Kennedy Pesidential Library is both imposing yet not over-stated. A rare treat for me was the opportunity to address the annual meeting of MassMEDIC, the largest regional medical technology association in the USA – and that means the world, I am sure! The speaker’s podium has a […]