Description (short summary):  
The medical devices industry constitutes a key sector for healthcare. It is one of the most innovative sectors, improving and saving lives every day by providing innovative solutions for diagnosis, prevention and treatments. The medical devices industry is also a major employer in Europe. However these companies face challenges of national, European and international dimensions that may have an impact on their innovation capacity and their competitiveness. These difficulties might have consequences on the health of European citizens.

An exploratory process on the future of the medical devices sector has been put in place over the second semester 2009 to map the existing public health and industrial challenges in the sector and investigate possible topics of reflection at the European level. This process has provided for industry, users, and consumers of medical devices with an opportunity to share existing challenges.

The objective of the exploratory process on the future of the medical devices sector was to gather at the end of the process an overview of existing public health and industrial challenges, to identify current dynamics of the industry and highlight key topics of interest at the European level which has resulted in the present final report, i.e. a set of suggested themes of potential further reflection adopted by the members of the exploratory process.

Number of pages: 16