COVID-19 won’t turn the industry to single-use devices:
• The healthcare industry is the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and device makers are trying to focus on sustainability, including reusable items, Ms. Kent wrote.
• Studies saying COVID-19 can survive for weeks on surfaces aren’t realistic to real-life scenarios, Ms. Kent wrote. She cited a piece in The Lancet arguing those studies used higher concentrations of the virus than typically found in real life. Surface transmission is most likely to happen if someone sneezes or coughs directly on a surface and someone touches that within a couple hours.
• People are looking for ways to be eco-friendly while complying with COVID-19 safety, Ms. Kent wrote. The medical device industry would likely pursue reusable devices, and thoroughly cleaned devices won’t contribute to the spread of COVID-19.
COVID-19 highlights a gray area between single-use and reusable devices:
• The volume of personal protective equipment may lead to a setback in the push to reduce plastic waste, but the solutions are complicated, Mr. Lo wrote. Each case should be looked at individually, with safety a top priority.
• Diagnostic devices all require extensive cleaning and decontamination if single-use options aren’t available, Mr. Lo wrote. One example, a duodenoscope, was flagged by the FDA after the organization found 159 incidents of contamination between October 2018 and March 2019. That prompted some players to launch a disposable version of the device.
• Mr. Lo also cited a study in the British Journal of Anaesthesia that found switching to reusables could cause an increase in carbon dioxide emissions over a device’s life.
Read the full article here.
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