Stephen Rapundalo, newly appointed chair of AdvaMed’s State Medical Technology Alliance

AdvaMed's State Medical Technology Alliance has a new chair: Stephen Rapundalo, president and CEO of MichBio.

Formed in 2007 to create a more formal relationship between AdvaMed and various state-based device groups, the mission of the alliance is to collectively support the industry by fostering a collaborative environment through sharing of best practices and advocating for public policies that support innovation. MichBio is Michigan’s statewide biosciences trade association.

"As we work with legislators in Congress and in state capitals, it's critical that we speak with a common voice to reinforce AdvaMed's advocacy on priority issues affecting the medical technology industry," said Rapundalo, whose appointment was announced two weeks ago during AdvaMed's annual conference in Washington. "I look forward to continuing the good work of my predecessors, Heather Erickson of MedTech and Joe Panetta of BIOCOM, and hope the next year is one of many accomplishments."

Meanwhile, AdvaMedDx, a division of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) that is focused on opportunities and challenges facing companies that discover, develop and manufacture medical diagnostic technologies, announced its 2012-2013 board of directors.

"I look forward to working closely with the board to drive the mission of AdvaMedDx, which is to partner with stakeholders from across the health care community to improve public health through the appropriate use of innovative diagnostic technologies for early detection and prevention of disease," said AdvaMedDX Chair Vincent Forlenza, who works as CEO and president at BD. Forlenza is joined by other board members:

• Edward Michael, executive vice president, diagnostics at Abbott Laboratories
• Bernhard Sixt, president and CEO at Agendia
• Ron Zwanziger, president and CEO at Alere
• Jonathan Achenbaum, senior vice president, global strategic marketing, diabetes care at Bayer HealthCare
• Thierry Bernard, senior executive vice president, commercial operations and investor relations at bioMerieux
• Norman Schwartz, president and CEO at Bio-Rad
• Lisa Ashby, president, category management at Cardinal Health
• John Bishop, CEO at Cepheid
• Tom Joyce, executive vice president at Danaher
• Carl Hull, president and CEO at Gen-Probe
• Cesar Garcia, president and CEO at IRIS International
• Nick Valeriani, company group chairman, worldwide franchise chairman, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics at Johnson & Johnson
• Carsten Schroeder, president, diagnostics at Novartis Diagnostics
• Peer Schatz, CEO at Qiagen
• Doug Bryant, president and CEO at Quidel Corporation
• Daniel O’Day, chief operating officer at Roche
• Jerome H. Casey, chief operations officer at Sekisui Diagnostics
• Michael Reitermann, CEO at Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics
• John Kershaw, president and CEO at Sysmex America