AdvaMed, Medtech Honored as a 2021 “Heroes of the Supply Chain”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, Healthcare Ready, whose mission is to “build and enhance” “strong infrastructure, seamless emergency response and supply chain coordination to ensure continuity of care”, honored AdvaMed and the medtech industry as 2021 “Heroes of the Supply Chain” for their work to identify supply chain disruptions related to the manufacturing of medical technology and find solutions to ensure patients have access to the life-saving devices they need.
In the announcement today, Healthcare Ready wrote, “Healthcare Ready applauds the medical device industry’s efforts for investing in and developing strategies to bolster supply chain resilience to help companies mitigate current and long-term risks during COVID-19 and natural disasters. Despite global shortages of semiconductor chips, the industry is continuing to establish creative partnerships to ensure that critical medical supplies we rely on, including needles and syringes, are widely available.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the supply chains of every industry, including medtech companies, which rely on semiconductor chips and other critical components to power their life-saving devices. We identified these challenges early in the pandemic and have been working to ensure semiconductor chips for medical technology manufacturers are prioritized,” said AdvaMed President and CEO Scott Whitaker. “I join Healthcare Ready in thanking and recognizing the hard work of the AdvaMed supply chain team and those at our member companies who, together, have brought a laser focus over the past year on helping to ensure patients wouldn’t suffer from the supply chain issues faced by the entire world.”
Underscoring the importance of AdvaMed’s work to prioritize semiconductor supply chain for medical technology companies, a report commissioned by the organization last year found that two-thirds of medical technology companies say semiconductors, firmware, and/or embedded software are required for at least half of the medical devices they produce for patients. AdvaMed also submitted a response to the Department of Commerce’s request for comments on the risks in the semiconductor supply chain and presented recommendations to the Administration to prioritize patient care by addressing the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage.
Additionally, AdvaMed, Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA), and International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) announced late last year that the organizations were collaborating with port leaders to test tools and processes for prioritizing medical supply containers in an effort to get medical supplies and equipment into the hands of health care providers and frontline workers more quickly and efficiently.
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AdvaMed member companies produce the medical devices, diagnostic products and digital health technologies that are transforming health care through earlier disease detection, less invasive procedures and more effective treatments. AdvaMed members range from the largest to the smallest medical technology innovators and companies. For more information, visit www.advamed.org.