Europe seeks to boost medical technology

Just as in the U.S., Healthcare in Europe is a major challenge for society. In order to help develop more effective treatments, the European Medical Technology Industry Association (Eucomed) has published these 10 key recommendations to increase medical technology innovation:

1. Establishment of an autonomous network of "Medical Technology Innovation Centres" in Member States, coordinated centrally.
2. Innovation (and patient)friendly regulation in the medical technology sector.
3. Coherent Healthcare Technology Assessment (HTA) schemes to provide patients with access to new medical technology. HTA schemes are not uniform and do not reflect new technologies sufficiently. Furthermore, they vary considerably in their design and application in the different Member States.
4. Making Europe attractive to the best researchers and innovators.
5. European governance that takes account of the specific needs of medical technology.
6. Structuring of EU Framework Programmes to support Small to Medium Medical Enterprises (SMEs).
7. Securing access to Framework Programme projects for medical technology innovation.
8. Securing intellectual property right protection and creating an EU Community Patent.
9. Defining and supporting educational needs.
10. Establishing a system of financing and improvement of capital conditions for medical technology innovation (especially for SMEs) and better protecting the interests of innovators.

Eucomed's Director General, Maurice Wagner, has noted that, "Innovation is critical for the health of citizens, the economy, employment and, indeed, the overall well-being of society. However, the European Union is still being surpassed by the US and Japan in terms of investment in medical technology R&D and in terms of patient access to new treatments and technologies." These 10 recommendations are a move to encourage technology innovation in the European Union.