European MedTech Week officially launched yesterday and a number of events will be taking place across Ireland to celebrate it.

As well as a strong base of medical professionals and a dynamic medtech industry, 10 of the world's top 10 ICT companies and 9 of the world's top 10 biopharma companies have a base in Ireland. 

European MedTech Week will see national medtech associations and companies organising activities across Europe to promote the value of life changing technologies. The Irish Medtech Association believes that Ireland's ability to attract some of the world's leading clinicians and medical experts, as well as our dynamic medtech industry, plays a vital role in saving patients lives. The Association also claim that Ireland is a global medtech hub, with more than 500,000 product types on the market to diagnose, monitor and treat patients,

The latest figures from Eurostat for 2014, show that more than 33% of death from certain diseases in people below the age of 75 could have been avoided with better use of medical technology and medical knowledge as a part of effective health care. There were 126.2 avoidable deaths per 100,000 inhabitants across the EU according to the latest data. Figures for Ireland showed there were 112.4 deaths per 100 000 inhabitants. This is better than the EU average and compares favourably to Ireland's closest neighbour, the UK, which reported 116.1 deaths per 100 000 inhabitants for the same period. 

Speaking after a Patient-Industry Dialogue held in Dublin to launch Medtech Week, Director of the Irish Medtech Association, Sinead Keogh said, "Helping patients understand their role and access the right information to manage their condition will help avoid these deaths in Ireland and across Europe. That's why we're hosting a number of patient-focused events in the areas of design and connected health during European MedTech Week."

Source: www.businessworld.ie