Europe plans to strengthen surveillance system for medical devices, MPs are told

A stronger system throughout Europe for checking medical devices and implants and how they are performing is likely to be agreed in revised regulations.

MPs on the parliamentary Science and Technology Committee heard some hints of what changes are coming from various witnesses on 13 June as part of their inquiry into regulation of medical implants.

The inquiry follows the scandal last year over discredited and now bankrupt French manufacturer Poly Implant Prosthèse (PIP), which used non-medical grade silicone in breast implants that were given to around 47 000 women in the UK.1 2

Jacqueline Minor, director of consumer affairs at the European Commission, giving evidence, spoke about the commission’s plan to review the directives that make up the current medical device regulatory framework in Europe.

“These directives have been …