We’re very pleased to once again be a part of this year’s Hospital News Medtech supplement. As the association representing Canada’s medical technology companies, we work closely with our health care partners across Canada – as well as our partners in government – to help ensure that our health care systems and patients have access to beneficial technologies that improve patient outcomes, reduce burdens on clinicians and enable greater access to care. Our member companies make the technologies used in the delivery of health care such as pacemakers, MRIs, glucose monitors, wound care products and orthopaedic implants – to name just a few.
This year, our association had the honour of celebrating its 50th anniversary. We held a reception to commemorate the event and were thrilled to play host to partners from past and present, including dignitaries such as Ontario Deputy Premier and Health Minister, Sylvia Jones, Ontario’s Associate Minister of Small Business, Nina Tangri, and the Mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown. It was a great event and allowed for our association to celebrate our past, while looking forward to the growing and evolving future of the medtech ecosystem in Canada!
A short history of our association: Medtech Canada was originally called the Canadian Association of Manufacturers of Medical Devices (CAMMD) and was founded primarily to engage with the Canadian government on matters relating to the regulatory environment for medical devices. While regulatory affairs continues to be an integral focus of the association to this day (particularly engagement with Health Canada), over the years the mandate of the association broadened its advocacy to optimize the environment in Canada for medical device technology adoption and the growth of the industry in Canada. In 1987 to 2019 the association was called MEDEC (Medical Devices Canada). In 2019 the association underwent a rebranding to become Medtech Canada – a brand identity that better reflects the evolving nature of the industry, including the growing digital health offerings from our sector.
As we look to the future, our association recently undertook a three-year strategic planning process earlier this year. A key strategy within that plan is to “Help the Canadian Health Care System Address its Most Pressing Challenges.” We know it continues to be a challenging time in Canadian healthcare and this strategy seeks to align our work with the needs of our health care partners. The first priority areas of focus as a part of this strategy are utilizing medical technology to improve surgical and procedural wait times/reduce backlogs and create efficiencies that reduce the burden on clinicians to help address health human resources shortages. In subsequent years, we’ll engage with our health system partners to re-evaluate the current challenges facing the health system at that time and will align our efforts accordingly.
Barriers continue to exist that impede the adoption of innovative medical technologies in Canada, including siloed funding models, lack of appropriate billing codes or an absence of dedicated funding for technologies. We will continue to advocate to address these challenges – working with governments, medical associations, and many others – offering tangible solutions to break down these barriers (implementing value-based procurement is one such solution).
2024 promises to be an exciting year for our association and the medical technology ecosystem in Canada, with a world-leading medical technology conference coming to Canada. AdvaMed, our counterpart association in the United States, is bringing their MedTech Conference to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on October 15-17, 2024. This is the largest medical technology-focused conference in North America and it’s the first time the conference is being held outside of the US. The fact that AdvaMed chose Toronto for this conference is a testament to the highly innovative medtech ecosystem in Canada and we look forward to our health system partners that are interested in health technology innovation to join us at this event!
To our healthcare partners: thank you so much for all you do to provide exceptional care to patients every day. Our industry will continue to support you and your unwavering commitment to Canadians, and we look forward to continuing to work with you to address the challenges you face. nH
Nicole DeKort
President and CEO
Medtech Canada
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