Originally Published EMDM September
2001
A study
conducted last year in the Czech Republic on behalf of the tobacco giant Philip
Morris Companies, Inc., concluded that the financial benefits to the Czech government
of taxes levied on smoking outweighed the costs of healthcare, lost working
days, and fires caused by cigarettes. The results of the study were cited in
late July in the Wall Street Journal. Commissioned by Philip Morris and carried
out by Arthur D. Little International, the study went even further to suggest
that the early deaths of smokers constituted “indirect positive effects,” in
the form of savings on healthcare and other services for the elderly. According
to the study, in 1999, the Czech government gained a net amount of <167.7 million
from smoking.
This twisted calculus would be ethically abominable even if it were economically sound, which is open to debate. The real question isn’t whether the logic of the report is flawed, but rather what Philip Morris could have been thinking in commissioning it. Was the company hoping to be congratulated for its innovative approach to healthcare economics? Did it expect to win accolades for “thinking outside the box”? In response to a massive public outcry, the company has apologized for the report, and wisely cancelled plans for similar studies in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia.
As all of these countries prepare for entry into the EU, they will certainly need to maintain a level of fiscal austerity. But the idea that a country can make economic gains by slowly killing off its own citizens is both ludicrous and frightening. And let’s face it—it just makes for bad press.
It is ridiculous that the disastrous effects of smoking should be presented as a boon to healthcare. It is as if the tobacco companies had jumped on the technology assessment bandwagon, promoting cigarettes as a kind of diabolically efficient antimedical device. Of course, rationalizing public spending is a worthy objective, even in the medical sector. But there are those who would seek to reduce healthcare expenditures in ways that prolong and improve human life, rather than destroy it.
Consider the industry associations BVMed, AdvaMed, and EUCOMED, which are unfailingly vocal in their quest to deliver to the public innovative medical technologies that will both improve patients’ lives and reduce hospital stays. As part of a campaign launched early last year to improve the public image of the medical device industry in Germany, the associations are preparing an art exhibit in Berlin that is anything but ordinary.
The exhibit is called “Convergence: Patients, Artists, Innovators” and is based on the following scheme. Eight patients whose lives have been improved by medical innovations such as hip implants or defibrillators were paired with eight German artists. In a workshop setting, the artists and patients met to talk and exchange ideas. The artists then returned to their studios to create paintings inspired by the patients’ experiences.
“The bottom line is to communicate to the public that these organizations stand for better and faster access for patients to innovative technologies,” says Martin Flörkemeier, senior consultant for healthcare communications at Edelman Public Relations (Frankfurt, Germany), which is helping to organize the exhibit. Over the past year, Flörkemeier’s firm has distributed illustrated case studies to the German media outlining the benefits offered by innovative medical technologies. He notes that the art exhibit is intended to add an emotional element to this media campaign.
The image of oil paintings about medical devices is admittedly an unusual one. But I also see in the art exhibit an industry so intent on taking its message to the people that it is willing to experiment with media that are strikingly unconventional. This is thinking outside of the box, but with heart.
A vernissage of the exhibit will be displayed in Berlin’s Hackesche Höfe on 25 September, and it will be open to the public from 26 September to 10 October. The exhibit will then move to Barcelona, Spain, to coincide with the Global Medical Devices Conference, which takes place 17–18 October.
Speaking of exhibits, I encourage you to visit the EMDM staff at the MEDTEC Ireland Regional Conference and Tabletop Exposition in Galway on 19 and 20 September. We have always been proud to help industry get its message out, and our editors will be on hand to hear how your device has changed people’s lives…for the better.
Copyright ©2001 European Medical Device Manufacturer
