ARTICLE SUMMARY:
RFK Jr., Dr. Oz, the Department of Government Efficiency, FDA, CMS, Congress, tariffs, and taxes were among the topics of conversation when Medical Device Manufacturers Association CEO Mark Leahey and AdvaMed CEO Scott Whitaker were on stage with us last month in San Diego at the MedTech Strategist Innovation Summit for a panel discussion about policy priorities in the wake of the US election.
Health policy and regulation are heading for unpredictable times as the incoming Trump administration signals plans for major disruption. But that doesn’t portend disaster for the medtech sector and it could even open up some opportunities, according to the industry’s two top advocates in Washington, DC.
Scott Whitaker, president and CEO of AdvaMed, and Mark Leahey, president and CEO of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association, sat down on stage with us November 21 at the MedTech Strategist Innovation Summit in San Diego to talk about the medtech policy environment in the context of the Trump administration and newly elected Republican-controlled Congress.
During the conversation, Whitaker and Leahey acknowledged that there are unanswered questions and reasons to be cautious. The Innovation Summit panel discussion took place about one week after president-elect Donald Trump announced plans to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and two days after he tapped Mehmet Oz, MD (the television personality known as Dr. Oz) as CMS administrator. Both RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz have been known to champion unproven or debunked health theories and they have signaled plans to upend federal health agencies that they, RFK Jr. in particular, believe have been co-opted by corporate influence. (The panel came the day before Trump named Johns Hopkins University surgeon Marty Makary, MD, as his nominee for FDA commissioner.) Each of these nominees will require Senate confirmation.
Medical devices and diagnostics, however, haven’t attracted special attention by Kennedy, Oz, or others in the Trump orbit. Kennedy has targeted most of his attention on pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and food. The trade association leaders point to this as a sign that their industry could escape direct attack, and, they suggest, it leaves openings for their groups to make the case for medtech as a good actor in the healthcare ecosystem.
