Health Minister Sussan Ley revised the membership of the PLAC earlier this year as part of a broader agenda to ‘reform’ the prices of medical devices on the list.
AusBiotech was invited to put forward nominations and made three, including Dr Roger, who served on the board of AusBiotech for nine years.
As a doctor and engineer, Dr Roger is also the developer of a knee prosthesis and was the founder of a medical device company that is now an ASX-listed orthopaedics company.
Dr Roger has been (2013 -14) the Medical Device and Scientific Industry Supply Advocate for the Australian Government and recipient of the prestigious Clunies Ross Award. He is presently an assistant surgeon for spine surgery in NSW hospitals, as well as the CEO of Vestech Pty Ltd, a medical device development company.
The Minister accepted the nomination of the former-AusBiotech Board member, appointing Dr Roger as an Advisory Member and an industry nominee on the advisory committee.
More information about the PLAC, including its Reform Work Plan can be found online.
The Department of Health has commenced work on the first stage to reform prostheses benefits, with a research and design project as a first stage in developing in benefit setting framework for prostheses. The Project is being managed by the Department with guidance from the PLAC.
The Department’s project team will engage directly with the peak bodies and AusBiotech has been confirmed as a ‘Stakeholder Representative Organisation’, which will receive member feedback and submit by 21 December 2016.
The Department has engaged the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Health Policy to research pricing models for medical devices and develop options for the design of frameworks for prostheses benefits within the Australian private health setting.
AusBiotech members are invited to submit comments by 19 December 2016 to Helen Arthur, National Programs Manager (harthur@ausbiotech.org, 03 9828 1425), or directly to the Department by emailing prosthesesreform@health.gov.au.