Mr Chris Colwell is Senior Director, Public Affairs, Greater Asia at BD, where he is responsible for leading the company’s public policy and public affairs strategies in the Asia Pacific region.

Prior to joining BD, Mr Colwell served as the Director of Vaccines and Diagnostics Policy at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). While there, he directed policy and advocacy issues related to vaccines, pandemics and emerging diseases, diagnostics, and personalised medicine. Mr Colwell’s previous work includes the U.S. Food and Drug Admministration's Office of the Commissioner in the Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats Policy, where he worked on policies related to the development and approval of medical countermeasures.  He was a fellow with former U.S. Congressman James Greenwood, developing internet pharmacy regulation, and also worked in the pharmaceutical industry synthesising health economics studies.

Before focusing his career on policy matters, Mr Colwell worked in the vaccine division of Merck and Co. Inc., where his final position was Area Head of Bacterial Vaccine Manufacturing.  His responsibilities at Merck included vaccine facility design, construction and validation; process scale-up; and management of on-going manufacturing processes, including regulatory affairs.

Mr Colwell received his Master in Public Policy from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the Pennsylvania State University.

Synopsis - Value-Based Approaches to Medical Device Utilization: Promoting Quality Outcomes
Governments and institutions face increasing pressures to use healthcare funds efficiently to achieve health outcomes.
At the same time, there is a rising awareness of the need to promote both patient safety and healthcare worker safety to avoid unnecessary morbidity and associated costs. This discussion will explore how medical device innovations and partnerships can play an integral role in enabling health systems and institutions to achieve these goals.