By John Wallace
The Medical Device Servicing Community (MDSC) has taken another step towards bringing bringing together medical device stakeholders from across the spectrum to work together in an effort to promote the safe and effective use of medical devices.
Or, as the group’s new website states, “The mission of the MDSC is to bring together a diverse community of stakeholders to advance the safety, effectiveness and quality of medical device servicing.”
The new MDSC website (MDSC.online) provides a wealth of information about the organization, its mission and its members.
“We organized the MDSC because the medical device servicing industry currently lacks a shared way of defining safety and quality and the associated responsibilities and accountabilities among stakeholder groups. The Community strives to come together to achieve common outcomes, solve shared challenges and leverage collective opportunities to enhance patient safety, servicing effectiveness and quality of medical device servicing regardless of who services the medical device,” the website adds. “Created as an outcome of the FDA report on Quality, Safety, and Effectiveness of Servicing of Medical Devices in May 2019, the scope of the MDSC is to define and encourage implementation of actions that advance the community’s mission, including, but not limited to:
- Develop best practices among stakeholders.
- Issue white papers and thought leadership papers related to the MDSC’s mission.
- Conduct community engagement activities (e.g., conference calls, workshops).
- Publicize and periodically report community engagement activities.
- Solicit input and feedback via appropriate channels.”
The MDSC was formed via the FDA. Samantha Jacques, the current steering committee members as well as Katrina Jacobs continue to support the group.
It’s purpose is to collaboratively work towards improving quality and effectiveness for anyone who maintains medical equipment
The MDSC steering team consists of representatives from five stakeholder groups — device manufacturers (OEM), independent service organizations, health delivery organizations, professional organizations and end users.
“I believe it is important to collaborate with other HDOs, MDMs and ISOs, to improve the quality and effectiveness of servicing. The MDSC provides a platform where the rising tide of collaboration can lift all boats in the servicing space,” says Mike Powers, director of clinical engineering at Intermountain Healthcare.
“I joined the Medical Device Servicing Community excited to collaborate with all the different parts of the health care sector. We are striving to make a difference in the quality of service being performed by anyone in the industry, whether it’s OEMs, third parties, BMETs,” Payne said. “Collaboration is about breaking down walls, and joining forces toward one common goal and that’s what we are looking to do here. At the end of the day, it’s all about people/patients and making sure they are taken care of with safe quality medical devices. We are welcoming all in the industry who are interested in making a difference in this area to join in this collaboration effort.”
In a telephone interview, Powers said that while right to repair is a hot topic in the industry, the MDSC tries to collaborate on issues that impact all stakeholders, something that cannot always be said for R2R. He also stressed the importance of a “collaborative approach” when it comes to addressing all items important to medical device stakeholders.
He shared the FDA definition of a collaborative community to describe the MDSC and its efforts.
“A collaborative community is a continuing forum in which private- and public-sector members, which can include the FDA, work together on medical device challenges to achieve common objectives and outcomes,” the FDA states. “They are convened by interested stakeholders and may exist indefinitely, produce deliverables as needed, and tackle challenges with broad impacts. Collaborative communities may develop for a number of reasons, including when:
- Challenges are ill-defined or there is no consensus on the definition of the challenges
- Challenges and outcomes are complex
- Partners are interrelated
- Incremental or unilateral efforts to address the challenge have been ineffective
- Partners seek to optimize efforts, including preventing duplication of efforts
- Better outcomes could be achieved with integrating different perspectives, experiences, resources and expertise.”
Powers said that the MDSC in 2019 and 2020 assigned itself tasks to address items that all the members (stakeholders) can agree upon. The focus became quality, talent shortages and remanufacturing.
Thr group owes a great deal to AAMI and the FDA for their contributions and participation — although they are non-voting members.
Thus far, the MDSC has compiled published documents available for free download under the “Resources” tab on the new website. One addresses best practices for training. Another document addresses quality management system recommendations. The group also continues to work on documents and is currently tackling which KPIs are worthy of recording and tracking within the industry.
Moving forward, the goal of the website is to provide a place where all; servicers and stakeholders have a place to meet with like-minded individuals to discuss common problems and work on collaborative solutions.
He added that feedback is not only welcome but encouraged. Participation in MDSC allows the opportunity to engage in impactful work that may solve long-standing problems in the medical device servicing field.
Any stakeholder is invited to visit the website and click on the “Contact” tab. Once the MDSC is contacted Powers promised that someone will follow up to invite those interested to attend one of the monthly virtual meetings or submit more information via email.
For more information, visit MDSC.online.
