BEACON WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS AND NEW YEAR
BEACON welcomes the Newington Public Schools, Newington, CT to the membership. The Academy of Biomedical Sciences at Mar@n Kellogg Middle School will open a state-­‐of-­‐the-­‐art facility in August 2014. This academy is the first of several future academies in Newington Public Schools, a district of 4,200 students. This academy will offer seventh and eighth graders an innova@ve program focused on biomedical sciences and STEM related careers. Addi@onally, academy students will engage in project-­‐based learning through rigorous instruc@on and curriculum content within science, technology, engineering, and mathema@cs to develop skills necessary to address challenges and real world problems in biotechnology, biomedical engineering, and various medical fields. Students will gain in-­‐depth knowledge of the human body, disease mechanisms, major biological themes, and other topics related to biomedical science. The academy will engage students in "real-­‐world" experiences by learning from and working with leaders in the biomedical community by way of guest presenters, teachers, field trips, and mentorships. Newington Public Schools is looking to build nontradi@onal partnerships with professionals in the biomedical fields to help us create an exci@ng and innova@ve learning environment for students involved in the academy. Partnering with BEACON means greater access to industry leaders as guest speakers, added opportuni@es to visit with universi@es, and consulta@on during curriculum development. They look forward to working with BEACON as they expand their programs and partnerships to ensure all Newington students will be college, career and ci@zenship ready. To par@cipate with this new academy, please contact Kim Davis, Director of Extended Learning at kdavis@npsct.org or 860-­‐666-­‐5611 ext. 1263.
BEACON also welcomes the Academy of Aerospace and Engineering Elementary School (PRE K3 -­‐ Grade 5) currently housed in Rocky Hill. AAEE is the Capitol Region Educa@on Council (CREC)’s newest magnet school. The theme for AAEE is science, technology, engineering and mathema@cs (STEM). The STEM theme is integrated across the curriculum in reading, wri@ng, social studies and the arts. Using the 5 E Inquiry Model, the students inves@gate ques@ons in science. Engineering projects are embedded in each science unit. The 220 students explore science and engineering through field studies at partner ins@tu@on Roaring Brook Nature Center, Canton, CT. In addi@on, programs and materials are provided by other partners including, West Harbord Children’s Museum, Connec@cut Resource Recovery Authority, eeSMARTS, Cul@va@ng Young Scien@sts, Project Budburst and Dinosaur State Park. This “young scien@sts and engineers” have access to technology including SMART Boards, touch screen desktops and an iPad for each student. In addi@on, students have an opportunity to collaborate with the high school students of the Academy of Aerospace and Engineering High School on the Connec@cut River Salmon-­‐in-­‐Schools project. Recently the University of Connec@cut Engineering Ambassadors created a Chemistry Corner workshop for the kindergarten students as part of their STEM Night ac@vi@es for parents. CREC magnet schools were created to meet the Scheff v. O’Neill court ruling that Joe Bronzino, President of BEACON, required a decrease of racial par7cipates in a “sta7on-­‐drama7c isola@on and access to high play center” in Mrs. Reme’s Pre-­‐K quality curriculum and class.
instruc@on for all Connec@cut students. For more informa@on about the AAEE Elementary School, visit: hhp://www.crecschools.org/our-­‐schools/academy-­‐of-­‐
aerospace-­‐engineering-­‐elementary-­‐school/
COVIDIEN-­‐BEACON LECTURE SERIES 2014
For the third year in a row, Covidien will sponsor a seminar series on advances in new medical technology. All of the seminars will be held at Covidien’s North Haven facility beginning with a networking session at 5:30pm and the presenta@on at 6:30pm. There is no charge and the events are open to the public as a community service of Covidien. Full details will be forthcoming. The schedule for this year’s events is as follows:
March 5 – Series Keynote address en@tled “Global Issues in Medical Technology” will be presented by Dr. José Gomez-­‐
Marquez, Medical Device Designer with Lihle Devices at MIT.
April 9 – “3D Prin;ng for Medical Devices” will be presented by Jus@n Coutu, General Manager of R&D Technologies, Inc., North Kingstown, RI.
October 15 – “Silk: The Revolu;onary Material for the Future” will be presented by Fiorenzo Omeneho, Ph.D., BME, Tuns University.
November 12 – The topic and speaker is pending. But SAVE THE DATE! UPDATE FROM ADVAMED AdvaMed, the Advanced Medical Technology Associa@on located in Washington, DC, has been leading the fight in Congress to repeal the 2.3% federal excise tax on all medical devices sold in the United States. In addi@on, they are working on many other issues of importance to our industry. They recently published a “Look Ahead to 2014” about opportuni@es to move forward on priority issues and challenges. A brief summary of that document is below:
BEACON
One Congress Street,
Suite 201, Hartford, CT 06114
(860) 547-1995 Toll-free: (877) 723-2266
Fax: (860) 727-0311
Find BEACON on LinkedIn!
President & Founder: Joseph Bronzino
Co-Executive Directors: Terri Wilson & Donald Peterson
Program Assistant: Leonor Snow
www.beaconalliance.org
MISSION STATEMENT
BEACON (the Biomedical Engineering Alliance & Consortium)
is a non-profit 501(c)(6) trade organization comprised of
academic and medical institutions, as well as corporations and
entrepreneurs dedicated to the development and
commercialization of new medical devices and technology.
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Device Tax Repeal – The effort for repeal will con@nue to be the top priority. In the bipar@san budget agreement, there is repeal language from the Senate budget resolu@on of early 2013, which provides procedural protec@on should the Senate take up considera@on of repeal again in the future.
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Ensuring FDA accountability under the latest user fee agreement will con@nue to be a priority for AdvaMed. They are working on an independent assessment of the FDA device center’s review process and will develop a response to any recommenda@ons found in that report.
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AdvaMed will con@nue to push the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and Congress to include recommenda@ons in CMS’s ACO and bundling programs by con@nuing to meet with and educate the new CMMI Director and other CMS officials and members of Congress in the hope they will share the concern about rewarding innova@on and preven@ng s@n@ng of care.
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Ensuring appropriate implementa@on of the Physician Payment Sunshine Law under which manufacturers’ payments to physicians will be made public beginning Sept. 30, 2014. They are also going to develop compliance guidance and tools to help companies mi@gate their compliance risks in the U.S. and under Foreign Corrupt Prac@ces Act.
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They will con@nue a focus on emerging markets interna@onally, which addressing Japanese payment issues and the EU’s regulatory revisions. BEACON has been a partner with AdvaMed through the State Medical Technology Associa@on (SMTA) in order to monitor and act, when necessary, on these and other topics of interest to our members and the medical device community at large. We welcome your comments and thoughts as these issues con@nue to impact your daily business.
BEACON 2014 Members
Benefactors: Covidien Surgical Solu@ons
Medical/Academic Members: Academies of Aerospace and Engineering (PreK-­‐12 CREC); Fairfield University; University of Harbord; Springfield Technical Community College; Medical Professions and Teacher Academy (CREC); Harbord Hospital; CT Children’s Medical Center; Newington Public Schools; Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center; Trinity College; UConn and UConn Medical Center & John Dempsey Hospital
Corporate Members: American Polyfilm; Arcor Laser Services; Cable Components Group; Cell & Molecular Tissue Engineering LLC; Connec@cut Innova@ons; Connec@cut Spring & Stamping; Court Square Group; Covington Associates; Dymax Corpora@on; Foster Corpora@on; Joining Technologies; Linemaster Switch Medical Corp.; Microtest Labs; MMEH, LLC; Putnam Plas@cs; Silex Medical, LLC; Son Tissue Regenera@on, Inc.; Valtronic Technologies; Web Industries; Westminster Solu@ons; Zetroz Inc.
Legal Members: Baker Bohs LLP; McCormick, Paulding & Huber LLP; Robinson & Cole LLP January 2014