IMDMC Elects New Executive Director

Indiana state representative Peggy Welch has become the Indiana Medical Device Manufacturers Council (IMDMC) latest executive director. Based in Indianapolis, the IMDMC is an association of medical device manufacturers and other companies that work together to promote the education and the interests of medical manufacturers in Indiana and in Washington, D.C.

Welch served a state representative in the Indiana General Assembly from 1998-2012. She also concurrently was—and still is—a part-time oncology nurse at the Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital. As a legislator, she focused on healthcare issues by leading the effort to form the life-sciences caucus and serving on numerous committees and study groups, including the House Public Health Committee, the Select Joint Commission on Medicaid Oversight, and the Health Finance Commission. During her tenure in the legislature, Welch received awards recognizing her work on healthcare issues, including the Indiana State Nurses Association’s Nyland Public Policy Award and the American Heart Association’s Heart of Indiana Award. She was also the inaugural recipient of the Great Lakes American Cancer Society Excalibur Award, and was named the Indiana State Medical Society Legislator of the Year.

“We are thrilled to have a person of Peggy’s ability and experience join IMDMC in this important leadership position,” said Chris Cerone, president of IMDMC. “She has a successful track record in health care and in public policy leadership, a rare combination that is a perfect fit with IMDMC’s mission to advocate on behalf of Indiana companies that manufacture a range of innovative medical devices.”

Welch is enthusiastic about working alongside the state’s medical device manufacturers. “Indiana is an international leader in the development of life-changing medical devices, and IMDMC will continue its role in advocating on behalf of these Hoosier companies that are critical to the state’s economy and to the health of patients around the world,” she said.

Welch told Orthopedic Design & Technology that because of redistricting, her career in the state legislature was cut short last year when she lost her reelection effort. With this new opportunity at IMDMC, however, she is uniquely positioned to inform state legislators on issues surrounding medtech in the state, which many lawmakers don’t know much about.

Thus far, Welch said, IMDMC has been focused on internal education. Her new position will allow her to bring that education out to the legislature for greater visibility of medtech.

“It’s unfortunate that [state lawmakers] don’t know much about medical device manufacturing in the state, and how it affects the health of the state—and indeed, how the orthopedic industry in Warsaw and companies like Cook Medical right here in Bloomington [where Welch works as a nurse] affect the health of the nation,” Welch told ODT. “My job is to educate the state.”

Welch said she would also be focusing on taxation and workforce issues in the state’s medical device industry.