By Jim Welch, EY Global MedTech Leader, Health Sciences and Wellness

On August 26, 2020, AdvaMed and EY hosted the second in a series of MedTech CEO roundtables, bringing together senior representatives from some of the industry’s biggest players for a wide-ranging discussion focused on the response of the medtech industry to the COVID-19 pandemic. Moderated by Jim Welch, EY Global Medical Technology Leader, and Scott Whitaker, President and Chief Executive Officer of AdvaMed, the group’s discussion focused on four key areas:

• What is the industry most proud of in 2020?
• What have been the biggest challenges during the pandemic?
• Which areas of disruption cause them the most concern as the world emerges from the first wave of the COVID-19 crisis?
• In what ways can the lessons learned during the pandemic help the industry build a better future?

The group offered a range of provocative insights around each of these points. A detailed report on the discussion is presented in the newly published executive summary What the medtech’s response to COVID-19 is and its lasting disruptive impact.

The conversation focused on medtech’s response to the COVID-19 crisis and what the lasting impact of the disruption caused in 2020 will be. It followed the first EY US and AdvaMed Medtech CEO roundtable held on August 4 with emerging companies and forms part of a broader dialogue about how medtech and other industries can respond and reinvent themselves in the wake of the pandemic’s challenges and opportunities.

The discussion also touched on topics for future exploration, such as go-to-market models, digital interactions with customers, training surgeons and other areas, which may form the focus of future roundtables, all part of EY US and AdvaMed’s continuing efforts to widen and strengthen communications throughout the medtech ecosystem.

The views reflected in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ernst & Young LLP or other members of the global EY organization.