The International Association of Medical Equipment Remarketers & Servicers just held its annual meeting April 28 - 30 in San Francisco. The approximately 80 attendees represented about 40 out of the association's 101 member companies.

Highlights included a panel discussion on CareCore National moderated by Robert Manetta of Nationwide Imaging Services who is IAMERS marketing chairman. Panelists included Marc Regan, also of Nationwide Imaging Services; Steve Walsh, Huestis Medical; and Jeff Fall, Imaging Systems International.

CareCore National is a leading radiology management consulting company that sets policies for imaging centers that limit the age of equipment. "It is a bit scary. If you're the owner of a free-standing imaging center, your MRI can be no older than four years old. Your software has to be even newer than that," said Diana Upton, president of IAMERS.
On the international front, WTO trade representative Ed Brzytwa from the U.S. Department of Commerce talked about some common misconceptions about the WTO. For example the organization doesn't really hold the authority to police world trade. "My sense of the situation is that where we initially thought there was doom and gloom vis a vis remanufacturing and remarketing, I don't think it's as bad as we thought," Upton said about trade restrictions.

Regarding business practices, IAMERS attorney Rob Kerwin gave a talk on document retention.

IAMERS is also planning a meeting September 19, 2006 in Amsterdam on European/U.S. trade.

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