Medical Technology Group

The Medical Technology Group (MTG) is a trade organization, working for different companies, patient groups, charities and other trade associations in the pharmaceutical industry. The MTG was launched in 2000 to make medical technologies available to everyone who needs them. The MTG works towards achieving a cutting edge NHS where patients are guaranteed access to effective medical technologies. The MTG does not have any competitors, like they write on their homepage, they are “the only UK coalition of industry groups and patient charities working together to improve patient access to effective medical technologies”.

AdvaMed, a members of the MTG, writes on their homepage that, “the Medical Technology Group represents drug and device manufacturers and trade associations on all aspects of federal and state regulation of medical technology, including the requirements of the Food and Drug Administration, Health Care Financing Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Trade Commission, and State Medicaid Agencies”.

Economy

Many, including The MTG, believe that that the uptake of medical technologies is not as good as it should be in the UK. The UK medical technology sector in 2010 consists of 3034 companies generating a turnover of £13.1bn and employing 55 000 individuals. Barbara Harpham, Medical Technology Group chairman and director of Heart Research UK claims that, UK lag behind many other European countries, with problems like hospitals denying patients NICE-approved technologies because they lack the facilities or staff to support their use. Norman Lamb MP, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, agree that it should be more focus on medical technology. He says that, “adoption of medical technologies is often both cost effective and in the patient’s interest. Up until now, the NHS has been slow to recognise the value of technology. This has to change if we are to maximise the effective use of resources for the benefit of patients”.

“The global medical technology market is estimated to be worth £150-170bn and the proportion of healthcare expenditure spent on medical technology is increasing. The USA is the largest market worth over £70bn and has a strong supply base with the majority of world’s largest medical technology companies originating in the country”. “The UK spends just 4.5% of its healthcare budget on technology, compared with a European average of 6.3%. This leads to British patients missing out, for example life saving pacemakers are implanted in Germany at twice the UK rate”.

Medical Technology

AdvaMed claims that medical technology is used to diagnose, monitor or treat every disease or condition that affects humans. They write that these innovative technologies are improving the quality of health care delivered and patient outcomes through earlier diagnosis, less invasive treatment options and reductions in hospital stays and rehabilitation times. Barbara Harpham says that, “slashing budgets is counterproductive as modern technologies help thousands of people stay in work and out of hospital” The global medical publisher, BMJ Group writes that, “medical technologies can improve clinical outcomes and experiences of patients and support the wellbeing and personal development of individuals. They can help to achieve savings for the NHS and other areas of public spending in a tight budgetary climate, by improving rehabilitation and independence, supporting care closer to home, and reducing planned and emergency hospital admissions”.

The Medical Technology Group have worked to improve patient access to effective medical technologies, such as Computer Navigated Orthopaedic Surgery, Spinal Cord Stimulator, heart blankets and insulin pumps. None of the products they have promoted have failed. The products they introduce for patients in the UK have been carefully tested, before the Medical Technology Group distributes information about them. As a result, none of their products can be said to have failed.

Heart blankets is an example of a product the Medical Technology Group have promoted on their websites and in other medias. Scientists at Leeds University are at a crucial stage in the development of an innovative artificial heart muscle that helps the heart to beat, called heart blankets. “The technology, made of a web of special material positioned around the heart, has sensors that recognise when the heart wants to beat, triggering a series of miniature motors to make the web contract, helping the heart push blood around the body”. . Barbara Harpham claims that this is an amazing new technology that could benefit thousands and save a massive amount of money for the NHS. She says that it’s great that it is being developed in the UK and funded by a UK charity, and that this is a product that can benefit many patients and their families.

The MTG members

The Medical Technology Group consists of 40 members, and it works as a partnership. “Partnerships are defined as purposive strategic relationships between independent firms who share compatible goals, strive for mutual benefit, and acknowledge a high level of mutual interdependence. They join efforts to achieve goals that each firm, acting alone, could not attain easily”.

List of members:

AdvaMed, Abbot Medical Optics, AntiCoagulation Europe, ARMA, Arrhythmia Alliance, Arthritis Care, Atrial Fibrillation Association, Association of British Healthcare Industries, BD, Bladder and Bowel Foundation, Boston Scientific, British Cardiac Patients’ Association, Cardiomyopathy Association, Circulation Foundation, ConvaTec, CR Bard, Dexcom, Eucomed, FABLE, FEmISA, Heart Research UK, ICD Group, Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia Info and Support, International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations, INPUT, Johnson & Johnson, The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, The Lindsay Leg Club Foundation, Medtronic, National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, The Patients Association, Patient Information Forum, Pelvic Pain Support Network, Roche Diagnostics, SADS UK, St Jude Medical, STARS, Stryker, Transplant Support Network, Zimmer.

The MTG includes individual medical technology companies as well as trade associations. Here are three, a bit deeper, examples of members of the MTG: Association of British Healthcare Industries, AdvaMed, Eucomed as well as individual medical technology companies.

The Association of British Healthcare Industries

The Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI) is the industry association for the medical technology sector in the UK. They represent companies whose output makes up for around eighty five percent of the industry’s total. ABHI was formed 20 years ago to address Industry’s need to engage with the fast moving regulatory landscape and to support UK companies export their products around the world. ABHI has teams focusing on: UK market affairs; research & innovation; international policy; communications and public affairs; technical and regulatory issues; environmental issues; and events and exhibitions. They state that their membership includes some of the leading multinational businesses in the sector in the UK right the way through to small and medium sized enterprises. ABHI aim is to promote the rapid adoption of medical technologies to ensure optimum patient outcomes throughout the UK and in key global markets. ABHI membership is open to manufacturers as well as service companies involved in the health sector, such as distributors, professional groups and lawyers.

AdvaMed

Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) is the owner of The Medical Technology Group, logo with slogan (Improving patient access to medical technology). AdvaMed lobby politicians in support of legislation that will lead to faster approval of new medical technologies. They want to reduce the regulatory burden, and therefore the cost, of introducing new medical technologies into the market. AdvaMed state that they represents the interests of companies that make medical devices and diagnostic equipment.

Eucomed

Eucomed represents 4500 designers, manufacturers and suppliers of medical technology used in the diagnosis, prevention, treatment and amelioration of disease and disability. Their members include national trade and pan-European product associations and internationally active manufacturers of all types of medical technology. Their mission is to “improve patient and clinician access to modern, innovative and reliable medical technology”.

Benefits of the MTG-membership

The MTG sends out a weekly report to their members with all media coverage, Parliamentary activity and government announcements relevant to the MTG. In the report, members of the MTG also get information about the MTG and Weber Shandwick activity “to keep all members in the loop” The MTG membership also includes: ▪ “Access to professional public affairs advice on matters relating to the Group ▪ Training workshops on lobbying effectiveness, media training and other topics ▪ Opportunities to meet and network with MPs, patient and professional groups and regulatory bodies such as NICE and NHS PASA”.

As a member of the MTG, organizations can be profiled on a variety of events, such as: ▪ “The Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat annual conferences ▪ The Medical Technology Showcase in the Houses of Parliament where your technologies could be exhibited to MPs and Lords ▪ Articles in the MTG’s full-colour ‘Bulletin’ which reaches 1,000 senior health decision-makers in parliament and the NHS”.

Contacts

The MTG lists its PR and lobbying company, Weber Shandwick, as the MTG's secretariat and contact point. Weber Shandwick is the UK subsidiary of Weber Shandwick Worldwide, one of the biggest global PR companies, owned by Interpublic. In 2006, the UK subsidiary had a fee income of £28 million. The company has strong ties to the Labour Party through its CEO Colin Byrne. “Weber Shandwick is to lobby on behalf of a body pushing for greater use of technology in the NHS”.

“The head office of Weber Shandwick UK and Ireland is located at:
 Weber Shandwick Fox Court
 14 Gray's Inn Road
 London
 WC1X 8WS
 Switchboard: 020 7067 0000
 Fax: 0844 875 1463” (http://www.webershandwick.co.uk/company/contact) Weber Shandwick provides the Secretariat to the MTG (http://www.technologyadoptioncentre.nhs.uk/assets/_files/documents/jun_10/nhs__1276784218_Medical_Technology_Group_Infor.pdf). If you want to contact the MTG secretariat, use this mail: mail@mtg.org.uk, (http://www.mtg.org.uk/download/file/pdf/MTG%20Bulletin%20Issue%2021.pdf)