A conference on the future of medical devices and an economic analysis of their development will take place in Galway next week.
The Health Economic and Policy Analysis Centre at NUIG is working with CÚRAM Medical Devices Research Centre to hold a conference on the role of health economics in the research and development of medical devices.
Health Economics is the practice of using economic analysis to inform health policy and health care decision making, particularly within the modern realm of high-tech medical solutions.
HEPAC are currently performing research that applies health economics to a wide range of chronic conditions such as ageing, dementia, disability, mental health, cancer, and obesity, and how medical devices can be employed in the future treatment of those conditions.
This research is being used to contribute to a broad range of health policy issues at a national and international level.
Next week’s conference is meant for medical device developers, manufacturers, regulators, as well as those who practice healthcare and formulate health policy.
It will deal with issues related to making an economic assessment of the healthcare potential in medical devices.
“The medical device sector is very important for Ireland and indeed more locally in Galway,” said Dr Michelle Queally from CÚRAM.
She added that “Europe’s premier cluster of medical device companies is based in the Galway region.” and that making sure making sure that the healthcare system is getting value for money from the production of medical devices is an area of growing concern.
The seminar will take place on Monday, May 13 from 9am to 12pm at the Institute for Lifecourse and Society in Dangan.
The keynote speaker will be Professor Rosanna Tarricone from Bocconi University, Milan who has over 100 publications in the areas of health policy, healthcare management, economic analysis of health care services.
In recent years she has focussed on health technology assessment of medical devices and has been the leader of a large, three-year EU-funded research project ‘MedtecHTA’ that has made recommendations on how to improve methods for assessing the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of health technologies.
For further information and for registration contact Michelle Queally at michelle.queally@nuigalway.ie or on 091- 492934.
