48% of MedTech companies ready for COVID 2nd wave—11% haven’t made significant changes
Boston, MA–November 12, 2020 In a poll of MedTech executives responding to How well prepared is your organization to respond to a potential second wave:
48% report that their companies are ready for the second wave of COVID, with scalable remote commercial capabilities, a bolstered supply chain and pandemic response protocols.
41% are starting to implement measures learned from the first wave—getting traction on remote capabilities, supply chain mitigation plans started and preliminary response systems in place.
11% report that their company hasn’t made significant changes in the way they’re working and have limited scalable remote commercial capabilities and have made minor supply chain changes.
This poll was taken during the MedExecWomen Fall Forum “At the Cutting Edge of Digital Health”, on November 10 which included a diverse array of female senior leaders in the MedTech and medical device space, including in the cardiovascular, diabetes, and surgical space. 71 of the 121 attendants responded to the question. The prompt was: COVID-19 affected hospitals’ abilities to schedule elective/deferrable procedures and had a major impact for Medtech companies. It is expected that we will see a second wave of COVID-19 cases in the next few months. How well prepared is your organization to respond to a potential second wave?
“We’ve reached a tipping point for telehealth: 70% of visits were virtual during the pandemic and we may see 50% continuing to be virtual in the long term,” said panelist Jodi Eddy, Chief Information and Digital Officer, Boston Scientific Corporation, in addressing what digital technologies have been contributing during this COVID period. “Digital health bridges three traditional hurdles: 1) Access to Information, 2) Adherence to Guidelines (clinical process improvements), and 3) Isolation, and this year social distancing has added to this.”
The event featured a panel discussion with three industry executives: Jodi Eddy; Luba Greenwood, Senior Lecturer at Harvard University and former Head of Strategic Business Development at Verily (Google Life Sciences); and Anjana Harve, Senior VP & CIO, Fresenius Medical Care NA. The panel was moderated by Meghna Eichelberger, Partner and Associate Director, Medical Technologies at Boston Consulting Group, and introduced by Maria Shepherd, President, Medi-Vantage and a founder of the organization. For more information: http://www.medexecwomen.org/fallforum
MedExecWomen empowers female executives to accelerate the positive impact of medical devices, diagnostics, drug delivery and digital healthcare. Interested executive level women can reach out to the organization https://medexecwomen.org/.
The meeting was sponsored by Boston Scientific, Johnson & Johnson, Boston Consulting Group, Bank of America, Latham & Watkins, Insulet, ZS Associates, Medtronic, Halloran, and Medi-Vantage, MedTech Strategies and Kathleen Rowe Associates.
Media Contact: Kathleen Rowe, media@medexecwomen.org