Total recall

So six weeks into the medical plastic device world and what have I gleaned so far? Well, it’s obvious that while this sector is fantastic at pushing the boundaries of science and technology in the quest to improve the health and well-being of us all, it is also fantastic in its modesty.

Scanning the health, science and technology stories in some of today’s papers, there’s a car that cleans itself, an umbrella that collects rain data and news of a competition launched by an astronaut to design a space meal. All well and good and I’m sure one day I’ll understand the need to monitor rain patterns – living in Manchester, it’s a pretty safe bet you’ll be rained upon at some point in the day. Why I would want to collect that data, I don’t know.  

But where are the stories about our sector? In the last few weeks alone I’ve written about the development of technology that will enable medical devices to dissolves inside the body, puncture-resistant gloves, a device that makes the insertion of grommets easier in children and a synthetic tissue-like material for wound healing  - all cutting edge stuff and technology that has the potential to make a significant  difference to the lives of us all and the well-being of those working in the professional healthcare sector. However, these are stories you’ll be hard-pushed to find on the pages of the daily newspapers.

I suspect that the reason behind this lack of coverage isn’t lack of interest by the media but that it doesn’t get to know about these developments in the first place.

Unfortunately much of the time, it’s the negative stories that end up grabbing the headlines – how easy it is to find items on product recalls, for example? The average person could be forgiven for having a somewhat negative view of the medical device sector when the only news that makes it to the front pages is that involving defective implants or faulty devices. It seems to me that we have an opportunity here to redress this balance.

Looking at the proliferation of news on product recalls, it was interesting to read an article in the Wall St Journal which examined the reasons behind the increase in the number of product recalls – according to an FDA the number of device recalls has doubled in the last ten years. One of the reasons suggested is software-related issues – accounting for 15% of all recalls between 2010 and 2012. It has also been suggested that the FDA regulatory process could in fact be more stringent in its initial stages and if so, this would reduce the number of post-approval recalls.

Of course, to the untrained eye, these reasons are unseen and it’s the scandal of the recall that makes the news. We are all living longer, the public has an increasing interest in both technology and its own health and well-being (you only have to look at the number of health-related magazines and websites that have flooded the market) – so why not make the most of this opportunity to promote the cutting edge work that’s taking place within this sector and get out the stories about the scientific advancements we are witnessing on a weekly basis that should really be making the headlines? We definitely have the audience for it and after all, isn’t it about time that those recall stories took a back seat?

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