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Imagine going into a phone repair shop to get your device fixed.
They ask you: Apple or Android? Series 11? 15? 18?
You pull out a beaten-up device: A first-edition Apple iPhone. The employee shakes their head. They don’t fix devices that old. You should get a new one.
We expect much of our technology to go obsolete. We may grumble about Big Tech not designing devices to withstand time—and new launches. However, after a few years of software updates, used up storage, and chipped screens, we eventually give in and get the upgrade.
But what about medical devices?
Michael Straight, a former jockey and a 10-year user of a ReWalk exoskeleton, recently shamed the device developer online after a broken battery kept him from being able to walk. The developer, Straight said, claimed they didn’t fix devices over 5 years old.
Eventually, the developer fixed Straight’s issue, but they continued to encourage him to replace the $100,000 exoskeleton, emphasizing greater reimbursement options available to patients like him now.
You may remember a couple of similar stories of medtech turning obsolete in the past few years:
- The bionic eye from Second Sight, which nearly went out of business in 2020 and has since discontinued the product.
- The cluster headache stimulation implant from ATI, which closed in 2019.
- The spinal cord stimulator from Nuvectra, which filed for bankruptcy in 2019.
Whether it’s for profit, managing liability, or the end of a company’s life cycle, what do we do when medtech companies cease to exist—or just refuse to work with their original creations?
The answer may be reorienting how we bring medtech innovation to the public, leading with a “commitment to care.”
One such approach to this medtech priority is the movement to standardize baseline components of medtech devices. Such standards can help industries avoid monopolies and ensure continuities of care if an individual brand or company goes under.
This idea is taking off in the neuromodulation space.
Startups fail every day. It’s a major part of our industry. But a patient’s future well-being cannot hang in the balance. Our health is too precious to stake in one company.
We must build an innovation ecosystem that helps patients safely and confidently embrace life-changing medical devices.
