After the four-year transition period: Is the European Union's Medical Device Regulation of 2017 likely to achieve its main goals?

Shatrov, Kosta; Blankart, Rudolf (2022). After the four-year transition period: Is the European Union's Medical Device Regulation of 2017 likely to achieve its main goals? Health Policy, 126(12), pp. 1233-1240. Elsevier 10.1016/j.healthpol.2022.09.012

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Following a series of major scandals over the past two decades, the medical device industry is now undergoing a major regulatory change: the implementation of the European Union Medical Device Regulation (MDR) of 2017. After a transitional period of four years, the MDR became fully binding in May 2021. Although the medium- and long-term impacts of the MDR are still unclear, a range of scholars, health care professionals, and industry representatives have begun to publish early evidence and publicize their views on how the new regulation may impact free trade and patient safety. Even a cursory view of their output reveals hypotheses and opinions that could hardly be more divergent. The reasons for this disagreement are unclear and may extend beyond the different interests of the various stakeholder groups. To find out why this might be the case, we examine the MDR and seek to improve scholarly understanding of this most extensive regulation of medical devices since the early 1990s. We offer policymakers suggestions to help them improve future regulation. Based on theoretical considerations, we conclude that while the MDR is highly likely to strengthen the internal market of the EU, its impact on patient safety will remain unclear as long as there are no comprehensive studies on this topic that are based on empirical data.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Faculty Institutions > sitem Center for Translational Medicine and Biomedical Entrepreneurship
11 Centers of Competence > KPM Center for Public Management

UniBE Contributor:

Shatrov, Kosta Donislavov, Blankart, Rudolf

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 350 Public administration & military science
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics

ISSN:

0168-8510

Publisher:

Elsevier

Funders:

[UNSPECIFIED] European Commission H2020 ; [UNSPECIFIED] Bonny Stiftung für die Freiheit ; [UNSPECIFIED] European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies

Projects:

Projects 779306 not found.

Language:

English

Submitter:

Carl Rudolf Berchtold Blankart

Date Deposited:

24 Oct 2022 14:58

Last Modified:

02 Mar 2023 23:36

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.healthpol.2022.09.012

PubMed ID:

36202647

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/173945

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/173945

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