European Commission Issues Plain-Vanilla Report on Reuse of SUDs

The debate on the reuse of single-use devices, which flares up from time to time, is on the front burner again thanks to a report from the European Commission. Eucomed has issued a press release welcoming the report whilst noting that it remains “typically neutral in terms of action at this stage.”

The EC report confirms that even with all the evidence and scientific opinion available, “it is not possible to quantify the risk associated with the use of reprocessed single-use medical devices.” The Commission also took a calibrated approach to the ethics involved: the balance between informed consent of patients and cost saving to the healthcare system could not be determined. It should be noted that the document was never intended to draft policy measures, which will be addressed within the context of the recast of the medical device directives. In other words, stay tuned.

For more on this issue, you may be interested in reading an editorial I wrote, An Inconvenient Truth about Reprocessing Single-Use Devices, along with a sternly worded retort from the Association of Medical Device Reprocessors.

Further details are can be accessed in a white paper on the reuse of single-use devices from Eucomed and scientific opinion from the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks.

Tags: European Commission, single-use device, SUD