Patient safety group asks Congress to include device identification system in health reform bill

Members of the Advancing Patient Safety Coalition (APSC) wrote a letter to Congressional leaders yesterday requesting they leave language in the final health reform bill that calls for the creation of a unique device identification (UDI) system. The language was included originally in the version passed by the House, and was actually part of the FDA Amendment Act of 2007, although no deadline was specified with that bill.

The APSC is urging the inclusion of UDI system in the health reform bill because there is currently no standardized way of tracking and recalling medical devices. As it says in the letter, We can simply and quickly identify each and every jar of peanut butter that might have salmonella and remove them from store shelves in hours but we cannot do that reliably today with potentially life threatening defective medical devices.

Members of APSC are hoping that a UDI system will help reduce adverse events by making it easier to recall specific devices. In 2008, more than 700 devices were recalled and since there is no current method of UDI, facilities are left on their own for saying on top of and managing recalls or updates.

You can read the full letter here. Do you think this issue is important enough to be included in the final health reform bill?