What top priorities can medical device professionals and patients expect in 2020 from the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH)?

Today’s guest is Mike Drues from Vascular Sciences. We discuss the recent FDA report that outlines CDRH’s regulatory science priorities, all of which are important, some more than others. However, there are a couple big ones missing. Listen to this episode for actionable tips on how you can develop your own list of priorities for 2020.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

- A comparison of historical context from the same reports in 2016 and 2017 to 2020, identifies 8 out of 10 of the same top priorities:

- Big Data, biocompatibility, real-world evidence, clinical performance, clinical trial design, computational modeling, patient input, and digital health/cybersecurity.

- What two priorities are missing in 2020 report?

- Reprocessing reusable medical devices: Not all devices are properly reprocessed to prevent deaths and cross-contamination between patients.

- Human factors and usability: Companies still struggle with the concept of making medical devices easy to use and/or understand.

- Why did these two priorities drop off 2020 list? A lack of high-profile reports from popular press about companies and medical devices causing problems.

- What two top priorities from past reports reappear for 2020? Healthcare-associated infections, and precision medicine and biomarkers.

- Medical device industry should develop its own list of top usable and actionable priorities. Effective communication with FDA may result in a consensus.