Medical Devices A Ticking Time Bomb? Consumers Union Holds Twitter Chat Today

Is that medical device in your body a ticking time bomb?

I saw a tweet about an upcoming Consumers Union's Safe Patient Project chat about medical device safety and asked the project's Daniela Nunez to send me some thoughts.

The chat begins at 1 p.m. EST today. All you have to do to participate is use the hashtag #sppchat. Here's what Nunez had to say:

"It's outrageous that most implants and other high-risk devices brought to market, such as surgical mesh and metal hips, aren't tested for safety before being sold. Tens of millions of Americans live with medical devices implanted in their bodies and suffer the consequences when those devices break, leak or fail to work.

A February Consumer Reports poll found that 17% of respondents had medical implants. Congress must reauthorize a critical medical device law by September. A powerful device industry lobby is working to keep the flawed device approval system virtually intact, or weaken it.

Consumers Union's Safe Patient Project will host a Twitter chat today on medical device safety issues from 1-2pm EST using the hashtag #sppchat to discuss what can be done to address this problem and hear from others."

Photo credit: Steve Winton via Flickr