Originally Published MX January/February
2002

INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS

Industry Gets
Prepared

AdvaMed's
Preparedness Council seeks to streamline the delivery of healthcare technologies
in response to major public health crises.

Pamela G. Bailey

Pamela G. Bailey is president of AdvaMed (Washington, DC), a trade association for the medical technology industry.

The terrorist attacks
of September 11 and the subsequent mail-borne attacks with anthrax caught America
and its public health system off guard. Many people simply never believed that
these kinds of atrocities could ever occur in America, so the necessary time,
energy, and resources were never invested. As a result, during those attacks
a wide array of problems surfaced which, if not corrected, could severely jeopardize
America's ability to effectively respond to and treat the victims of future
large-scale terrorist attacks.



Immediately following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,
AdvaMed (Washington, DC) conducted a survey of its member companies to determine
whether they had encountered any difficulties getting their products to New
York City and Washington, DC. The results underscore the importance of a collaborative