The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA) and its top staff will leave the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) and become a division of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) effective Jan. 1.

Six key members of both associations have decided that the work of MITA belongs in a health-care advocacy group, AdvaMed CEO Scott Whitaker told CEO Update. MITA’s budget is about $4 million this year, while AdvaMed’s is about $47 million, an AdvaMed spokesman said. NEMA reported $23 million in revenue in 2021, the latest data available. As a unit of AdvaMed, the alliance will be called the Medical Imaging Technology division.

The six companies driving the move are Bayer, Fujifilm Sonosite (a division of Fujifilm), GE HealthCare, Hologic, Philips and Siemens Healthineers. All are members of both associations. The group has a global reach, with companies based in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States. 

“We represent companies around the world and to have the entire industry unified in one space will make us incredibly impactful,” Whitaker said.

Peter Arduini, president and CEO of GE HealthCare, is the newly elected board chair of AdvaMed. 

“They are health-care companies first,” Whitaker said. “And the best place for them to do their work would be where their customers and colleagues are — right in the health-care space. That was really the impetus for the deal. More and more they are becoming interconnected health-care companies in the medtech ecosystem. The work that we’re doing, the alignment that we have, is just much more consistent with what they need and the value that they need.”

AdvaMed has a range of medical technology company members, from those that make pacemakers and diagnostics tools to those that make imaging equipment like MRI machines. NEMA’s membership, in addition to the medical imaging companies, includes makers of batteries, motors and electrical fuses.

Member exodus?

The move could spark a major member defection from NEMA. A spokesman for AdvaMed said the group will work to convince more than 50 medical-imaging related companies to leave NEMA and join AdvaMed. 

A spokesperson for NEMA could not be reached for comment. 

Whitaker said that since the six member companies decided on the move, it does not require NEMA board approval. AdvaMed’s board cleared the deal on Friday.

“From my perspective, this was not a hostile move in any way. I think very highly of NEMA as an organization,” Whitaker said. 

MITA Executive Director Patrick Hope, who has led the alliance since 2015, will come to AdvaMed, as will MITA’s advocacy and public policy staff led by Peter Weems. Seven to 10 employees in all will join AdvaMed’s new division. 

“Our new home at AdvaMed makes perfect sense: For the first time, we will be surrounded by a team, infrastructure, and resources focused entirely on the patients our companies serve,” Hope said in an AdvaMed statement released Dec. 11. “We will be surrounded by and working directly with experts in medtech policy at the state, national and global levels. I am 100% confident that our companies will see more value in our work together under the AdvaMed umbrella than ever before.”