NBA Legend Bill Walton
Joins Medical Device Industry's Lobbying Efforts
Written by Jaimie Oh
| June 04, 2012
Bill Walton, 59-year-old NBA legend, joined 200 medical device
executive as part of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association's efforts to
lobbying on behalf of the medical device industry, according to a Mass Device report.
Mr. Walton spoke at MDMA's annual meeting in late May
and discussed his experiences as a patient undergoing spinal fusion surgery and
the challenges the industry faces, including the medical device excise tax,
regulatory struggles with the FDA and reimbursement with CMS. After his speech,
Mr. Walton and NuVasive CEO Alex Lukianov traveled to Capitol Hill to lobby
lawmakers on these issues.
Jjrk_ch
Bill Walton is being paid to be a
spokesperson, a broadcaster, a mouthpiece for the industry. He is in
business just as the medical device executives are. The Institute of
Medicine, Public Citizen, NWHN, Consumers Union have advised that regulatory
intervention is badly needed to prevent further patient harm. Greed will
not go away but public awareness will shine a light on their "innovations"
that include obscuring product information from patient decision-making,
limiting citizen rights to justice/compensation and scrimping on clinical
trials. Patient harm and cost to taxpayers for care of abandoned victims
is crippling our nation
because of failed/unproven implanted medical devices.
Jaimie Oh
Writer/Reporter, Becker's
Hospital Review
Quality/Patient Safety
Writer/Reporter, Becker's ASC Review
ASC
Quality/Infection Control, Accreditation
jaimie@beckersasc.com
FiDA Blog additional comment: Sports figures/celebrities are often selected and reimbursed for their endorsements of medical device products. (Particularly in the Orthopedic medical field because nearly all orthopedic surgeons are male as is 83% of Congress. Just saying . . .!)
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