Medical devices: managing the mismatch: an outcome of the priority medical devices project

Overview

In order to improve global access to appropriate medical devices, the Priority Medical Devices (PMD) project, convened by WHO, developed a health based approach to medical devices. The first step in this approach was to identify the most important health problems: on a global level this means using the global burden of disease and/or disease risk factor estimates. The second step was to identify how health problems are best managed by referring to relevant clinical guidelines. And the third and final step was to link the results of the first two steps to produce a list of key medical devices that are needed for the management of the identified high-burden diseases, at a given health-care level and in a given context. Using this step-wise approach, the PMD project identified the key medical devices involved in the treatment and management of the global high-burden diseases from relevant clinical guidelines. Of particular note was the almost complete absence of any mention of assistive products necessary to help improve functionality of people with these diseases.