‘Right to Repair’ Movement Could Risk Patient Care for Disadvantaged Communities: Cutting Corners in the Medical Field is Unacceptable

By Al Wynn, PhD, former U.S. Representative (MD-4) | The Washington Informer

What the right to repair movement ignores though is that not all product classes are created equal. And a one-size-fits-all solution is not a real solution, especially when it comes to regulated products like medical devices.

Medical devices are an important part of the health care services industry. Every single person has been helped by a medical device — whether it’s an EKG machine, a defibrillator, dialysis pump, x-ray machine, or any of the other more than 24,000 devices that medical professionals use every day.

Now imagine if that device didn’t work.

It is this risk that should give policymakers considering these right to repair laws pause. Given the influence medical devices have on public welfare, do we really want to introduce more risk? Risk that could impact functionality?

Cutting corners in the medical field should never be an option. A 2016 study by the National Library of Medicine found that cutting corners was a “common practice” that contributes to adverse outcomes. That’s simply unacceptable.

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