MDMA Annual Meeting to Focus on Industry Reforms
April 15, 2009
The Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA; Washington, DC) has announced the agenda for its annual meeting, which will take place June 1–3 in Washington, DC. The event is open to nonmembers of the industry's national trade association and gives industry executives and entrepreneurs an opportunity to network with each other and engage policymakers on Capitol Hill.Focusing on understanding new government standards and industry trends, the event will feature general sessions on these changes as well as panels comprised of experts from Capitol Hill, FDA (Silver Spring, MD), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS; Baltimore, MD), and industry. A presentation on the state of the medical device industry will include venture funding and aquisition activity, as well as what lies ahead, and an update on FDA will cover the administration's Globalization Act, the Medical Device Safety Act, and the Unique Device Identification Initiative.In addition to general industry-outlook sessions, attendees will hear from such speakers as Mark McClellan, former CMS administrator and current director of the Brookings Institution's Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform (Washington, DC), who will address healthcare reforms and how they may affect the medical device industry. Panelists are scheduled to debate the appropriate structure and use of comparative effectiveness research and whether it means improved quality or rationed care for patients in a separate session devoted to the sensitive topic.The event will also feature presentations on issues affecting smaller medical device companies, such as developing a comprehensive compliance program and navigating challenges in foreign markets. Also, Andrew Hirshfeld, acting deputy commissioner for patent examination policy at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (Arlington, VA) will lead a discussion about administrative and legislative changes to the patent system that will address the office's backlog and create incentives for manufacturers to innovate.
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