Happy New Year to all of our friends and colleagues.
The cost and supply chain pressures that began during COVID continue, and we’re seeing policy leaders and healthcare experts now focus on the enormous green house gas emissions and waste associated with healthcare. The more they do, the more they recognize reprocessing as an obvious place to look for an immediate, regulated solution with quantifiable results.
In October and December, we celebrated amazing reporting on the issues of hospital emissions and on the right-to-repair movement in STAT. We are thrilled to have such a prominent news outlet exhibiting interest in our cause, elevating exposure for our industry.
And yet, this is only the tip of the iceberg. In addition to the STAT articles, we were also featured in a podcast, a video and written interview, an article and a panel, all highlighting the well-established solution reprocessing offers to reducing costs, greenhouse gas emissions, waste and logistical strains on healthcare.
In addition to all of this positive media activity, our friends in research and academia contributed to an exciting quarter with their work as well.
In October, research published in Sustainability examined “green servitization,” finding that reprocessing provides better value for hospitals and lowers their carbon footprint. In Nature Reviews Cardiology, researchers considered various strategies for reducing the carbon footprint of catheterization laboratory, finding that “[reprocessing] catheters is the most effective way to reduce the carbon footprint of ablation procedures.” In PLOS ONE, researchers argued that reprocessing “is a sustainability solution that has the potential to decrease hospital waste, cut carbon emissions, reduce spending, and improve supply chain resiliency” and “conducted a qualitative study to understand barriers and facilitators of scaling up [medical device reprocessing].”
The last three years have shaken not only healthcare, but the entire world economic system. Basic assumptions about the stability of our supply chains and the availability of limited natural resources have to be reconsidered. As the world begins to look towards new potential paradigms in these areas, it is clear that the medical device reprocessing industry is going to play an increasingly greater role, AND serve as an example of a successful, circular economy business model for the larger healthcare industry.
Best Wishes,
Dan Vukelich, Esq., CAE
President & CEO
Association of Medical Device Reprocessors
www.amdr.org