Exec Chat: CES 2020: For FDA's Amy Abernethy, It's About Data, But Also Community Engagement

The US Food and Drug Administration's announcement on 8 January that it will hold a public meeting in late March to discuss the agency's efforts to modernize its technology infrastructure came the same day as one of its highest-ranking members, principal deputy commissioner Amy Abernethy, addressed industry members during the Digital Health Summit, part of the Consumer Electronics Show, CES 2020 in Las Vegas. (See photo below, courtesy FDA). 

Abernethy told Medtech Insight that one major part of the Technology Modernization Action Plan (TMAP), which was first introduced on 18 September 2019 and lays out the agency's short-term actions to close the gap between new scientific advances in data gathering and regulatory technology needed to protect public health, is to start a conversation with industry. In particular, the plan describes actions that the agency will take over the next three years to modernize its use of technology to capture real world evidence among other purposes