Has anyone else been watching the congressional hearings on defective medical devices on CSPAN? I saw a rerun yesterday and most of it focused around the defective Medtronic ICD leads.

Of course this stuff isn't new. These days almost any corporation will withhold information and action as long as they can. Medtronic only did it for 3 years. How about the defective rudder controls on the 737 jetliner where they just finally finished replacing the last one after the problem first occurred in 1996. Several fatal crashes and several close calls didn't result in grounding the aircraft until it was fixed, and all with the FAA's blessing.

So the next time your ICD starts randomly firing or fails to fire, just be comforted that you to help the economy and quit complaining.

frank

 

 

Maybe we should all attend the next round and act as... hearing aides

 

How about requiring the FDA inspectors to have an ICD fired into their chest a couple of times to remind them of how it feels.

frank

 

I had the bad leads and I realize they are making machines that are keeping us alive. But I have a problem with it when they know there is a problem but continue to use the same product anyway. It's called greed.

 

Too bad management is so greedy. I really like the Medtronic Reps here. They are very knowledgeable and don't mind dealing with an engineer like me.

frank

 

look at the automotive industry. To bad that an industry that makes machines that go into people that they feel the need to hide mistakes, I guess the ambulance chancing lawyers with thier 50 million law suits for anything including blowing your nose wrong in a kleenex and it rips and you get snot all over your hand, are the ones to blame. Sad Sad world we live in now adays. And politicians I wont even get into that one. Greeeeeeddd it will be the downfall of this country sad sad days.

dave

 

In many ways it is inherent in us as people. I'm glad I'm not a people. LOL

It has always been this way. It is just that the modern world gives so many more ways for it to show. In the good old days if a local doctor had a bad record of infections and deaths the whole community knew about it. Now it is buried in corporate practices, specialties, and statistical noise.

Just think: if we pay doctors by the visit they will keep the visits as short and frequent as possible. If we pay by the hour they will be as long and frequent as possible. If we pay by the condition they will diagnose as many conditions as they can. If we pay by outcome they will be selective who they take on to treat and only pick the easy ones. And if they are paid a fixed salary they will do as little as possible. Where is the patient in all this? They are the raw material of the practice.

frankonomics 101,

frank

 

When was that original hearing?

In 2005 I had a Medtronics device "installed." Less then a year later I received a letter regarding the device being re-called. Ironically, that same week my device continually went off. I was shocked once every 15 minutes or when I moved. I even shocked a nurse who was holding my hand. I am happy to say that I now have a device (Defib/PM combo) from Boston Scientific.

I think the Airlines lobbyists are more powerful then those of health care. They're able to sweep things under the rug, unless there's a crash.

 

These problems are universal across all fields. We are suckers for a good story. You mention the airline lobby. One example is the good old Boeing 737 rudder problem. After a number of crashes and identification of the problem the old style part was last replaced last year some time. The FAA allowed them to continue to be in service because of the financial hardship to the airlines if they had grounded the planes. Not the interesting part. This has been the subject of a number of TV reports on major networks. Yet I would be willing to bet that only few percent of the flying public (including many on this site) has watched one of the reports and refused to fly the 737.

There is no need to sweep the problem under the rug when we users will simply avoid looking at it.

Drug advertising works the same way. We watch the smiling couple heading for the bedroom, while the voice in the background rapidly rattles off the list of side effects such as headaches, nausea, arrhythmia's, and on&on. Which do we remember when we ask the doc for the med.

frank