Joe Carlson reports:
Thousands of people around the world have been exposed to toxic chemicals generated by their metal hip implants. Similarly, many patients have contracted infections from pieces of implanted mesh used in hernia-repair surgery, even though materials less prone to causing complications were available.
[…]
That’s why harnessing the potential of data on patients is one of the main goals of a national device surveillance system proposal being unveiled Monday by the health care arm of the Brookings Institution, the Washington think tank.
Read more on Star Tribune. Like all well-intentioned ideas, one always need to think about “What could possibly go wrong?” in terms of privacy. How many more people would now have access to information about a patient that shows that they have a pacemaker or deep brain stimulator, or…. ? How will device identifiers be matched with patients? Who will know the real identity of patients?
Thanks to Joe Cadillic for this link.