For the past several years, policymakers and industry have been exploring ways to improve the quality of health care furnished to individuals while promoting efficiency and value. As I have discussed in the past, I believe that medical technology companies can be a key player in these coordinated care efforts in light of their specialized clinical knowledge, economic expertise, data analytics proficiency, and supply chain management capability. Unfortunately, various regulatory roadblocks stand in the way of the medtech industry’s full participation in the shift to more coordinated care.

Note: this blog post was originally published on LinkedIn Pulse on February 28, 2017.

Medical technology companies have long been recognized for their life-saving contributions to diagnosing and treating patients – from medical imaging to genetic testing to implantable devices. In fact, medical technology advances are credited with helping to add five years to the average U.S. life expectancy since 1980 and slashing the number of days spent in hospitals by 59 percent between 1980 and 2010. The newest medtech innovations are truly astounding, from the use of 3D printing of tissue to diagnostics linked to smartphones, to innovations in medical robotics and nanotechnology. 

Note: this blog post was originally published on LinkedIn Pulse on April 18, 2017. 

I recently sat down with Peter Blenkinsop, a Partner at DrinkerBiddle, an expert on data privacy and one of the panelists at our upcoming GMTCC Conference (Amsterdam, May 3-4), to get his take on the biggest privacy law challenges currently facing Medtech companies.

Peter pointed to two trends that are changing the Medtech sector and provided insight on how privacy and data protection laws may impact those trends: