Next Practices !!

Reuse of medical devices to lower costs
Recycling of a growing number of medical devices labeled as single use is becoming a preferred option for hospitals in the US to save costs and stem a rising tide of medical waste. Scissors, scrubs and blades that surgeons use to saw through bones are all being recycled. Recycling medical devices labeled for single use is legal as long as certain FDA guidelines are followed, but the practice has raised concerns around safety. Medical devices companies are saying that reuse poses a higher risk of failure, whereas reprocessing companies counter that reprocessing is as safe as new thanks to modern sterilization methods. About 100 devices (just 2 % of all devices labeled for single use) are now being reprocessed.

The US medical devices market is approximately $ 75 billion, of which around $ 31.5 billion is single use devices. Of this around $ 150 million is being recycled. According to one of the reprocessors, around $ 3.6 billion worth of single use devices are safe for reprocessing, and could save the industry around $ 1.8 billion every year (not to mention the huge amount of waste that could be eliminated).

India's entire medical devices industry is only around $ 1.8-2 billion currently, and according to reports, over the next ten years, anywhere between $ 20-40 Billion worth of investment in medical devices is likely to be made. For instance current availability of CT scanners and MRI units per million population is only 1.6 and 0.4 (as compared to 2004 figures in the US of 32.2 (CT Scanners) and 26.6 (MRI units)), and will need to grow as India expands its healthcare delivery capacity. However, indian hospitals have always recycled medical devices, though there is no data available on the value of single use devices sold every year. From a waste elimination point of view, reuse is a huge benefit for India.