By Nathan Proctor
In a milestone for Right to Repair, on April 30, Secretary of the Army Daniel P. Driscoll called for the Army to seek to include Right to Repair in all procurement contracts.
The order included a number of policy changes, with an intention to “eliminate wasteful spending,” “modernize inefficient defense contracts,” and otherwise streamline Army operations. Among those policy changes was this section regarding the Right to Repair:
To accelerate modernization and acquisition efficiency, the Secretary of the Army shall … Identify and propose contract modifications for right to repair provisions where intellectual property constraints limit the Army’s ability to conduct maintenance and access the appropriate maintenance tools, software, and technical data – while preserving the intellectual capital of American industry. Seek to include right to repair provisions in all existing contracts and also ensure these provisions are included in all new contracts.
Military Right to Repair has been a topic for many years, including a prominent call for change from then-Captain Elle Ekman featured in The New York Times in 2019. The new Army policy follows 6 years of investigation and advocacy, and is an important step forward – but more needs to be done to ensure that our service members have what they need to fix the equipment they rely on.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR MEDICAL DEVICES?
The Army purchases many medical devices, and also has its own team of biomedical technicians. Perhaps this is why the medical device manufacturer trade association, AdvaMed, signed a letter opposing Military Right to Repair in the fall of 2024.
Not only that, AdvaMed hailed the stalling of that measure in their 2024 annual report, writing “AdvaMed successfully prevented the inclusion of a ‘right to repair’ provision in the final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), safeguarding the integrity of medical devices.” The trade association added “Ensuring that only authorized repairs are permitted protects patient safety from risks associated with improperly maintained or modified medical devices.”
As I have written about previously, when manufacturers refuse to allow military biomeds to access the full range of service materials for the equipment under their care, it carries risks far greater than “improperly maintained” devices. Namely, that people with urgent, life-threatening medical issues do not get the care they need because the only people available to service the equipment are being thwarted by the manufacturer.
I spoke with two former military biomeds who both described being denied access to service keys for equipment in field hospitals in Afghanistan. “Who knows how many people’s lives were affected?” one of them lamented to me.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The Army leading on Right to Repair is a huge step forward. It would be best to make Right to Repair a basic rule, so it’s not a topic of debate in every round of procurement. There are huge financial incentives for manufacturers to control the repair of their products. Given my eight years of work on this campaign, I know manufacturers will push as hard as they can to maintain that control, and I worry about how that pressure might affect the staff who negotiate these contracts.
We believe that everyone, everywhere deserves the right to repair the products that they own – and that means manufacturers should make the parts, tools or information required available. That means every branch, in every contract, which is why we must enact the Servicemember Right-to-Repair Act.
