The number of EU notified bodies applying for designation against the EU MDR has risen by over a third in the past nine months, the European Commission reports. IVDR applicant numbers are up slightly too. But are the increases enough to ease the anticipated bottlenecks?

No device-related warning letters were released by the US FDA the week of April 23.

The recent document from the European Commission's Medical Devices Coordination Group concerning device registration timelines is difficult to follow, with its many unexplained references. This article aims to clarify how the MDCG's findings affect the way manufacturers should prepare for MDR compliance.

US legislators accuse the Chinese government of recruiting and subsidizing US NIH-funded Chinese researchers to steal US-owned genetic research and intellectual property, cheating the peer review system, and establishing US-connected lab facilities with access to US citizens' genomic data. See what US Senator Roy Blunt said about it here.

Nitinol, a nickel-titanium alloy ubiquitous in medical devices, is getting more scrutiny from US FDA in a recently released draft guidance. As safety concerns have arisen in the past few years over biocompatibility of certain materials in implanted products, the agency is asking device makers to provide additional information on nitinol in their device submissions.

The US FDA will soon hold a meeting to discuss paclitaxel-coated devices to treat peripheral arterial disease. The drug-eluting stents and balloons have been subject to increased scrutiny since a meta-analysis found they were linked to a higher patient mortality rate.

The World Health Organization has framed a policy to help suppliers, donors, procurers and distributors manage medical products throughout the supply chain and ensure availability within their remaining shelf-life.

Medtronic quality VP Luann Pendy worked with the US FDA and the Medical Device Innovation Consortium through its joint Case for Quality devise a so-called "#makeCAPAcool" initiative to recast corrective and preventive action as a continuous learning tool. See what Pendy said about the "monster called CAPA" here.

The so-called "#makeCAPAcool" group wants to recast corrective and preventive action as a continuous learning tool, rather than a place where problems often go to linger, be ignored and never die. A new voluntary CAPA framework developed by the team and piloted by a handful of device-makers will be rolled out later this year.

The global market for arthroscopy products and sports medicine implants is expected to reach $9.0bn by 2023, a CAGR of 4.2% from $7.3bn in 2018, driven in part by the rising availability of arthroscopy at ambulatory surgery centers in many countries, expanding indications for arthroscopic repair, patient preference for minimally invasive procedures and advanced techniques.

Philips' CEO Frans van Houten spoke about his vision for the company's continued adoption of machine learning and artificial intelligence at the World Medical Innovation Forum in Boston. See what van Houten said about it here.

Philips CEO Frans von Houten says the future of health care is in AI platforms that will transform how effectively and efficiently patients are treated. He predicts the technology will be so ubiquitous that users will not even realize they are interacting with the technology.

Philips CEO Frans von Houten sat down with Medtech Insight for an exclusive podcast chat on the company’s philosophy for artificial intelligence and what is needed to fully embrace the technology as health-care systems evolve.

GT Medical Technologies Inc. launched GammaTile permanent intracranial brachytherapy device, designed to be placed in the space left after the excision of a brain tumor. See what GT Medical Technologies' CEO and president Matt Likens said about it here.

Medline Industries will pay $167.5m for the Namic brand of manifolds, contrast management systems, closed fluid systems, guidewires, disposable transducers and interventional accessories. It also includes a manufacturing facility and the manufacturing, sales and marketing staff that support Namic.

Investigations into violations of National Institutes of Health grant-funding rules targeting scientists from China and other countries working on genomic research have already resulted in three firings at a famous cancer center in Houston.

The de novo clearance is based on the results of a 62-patient phase II sham-controlled trial. Patients in the treatment group showed more improvement in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms over four weeks than patients treated with a placebo device.

A snapshot of global medical device approvals captured during the past week in Medtech Insight's Approvals Tracker. This week, FDA approved BaroNova's TransPyloric Shuttle and its delivery system to treat obesity. It also cleared NeuroSigma’s Monarch external trigeminal nerve stimulation system, making it the first FDA-approved device for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Patients treated with the TransPyloric Shuttle in the 213-patient ENDObesity II trial lost an average of 9.5% of their body-weight and 30.9% of their excess weight.

The Woven EndoBridge (WEB) aneurysm embolization system proved relatively safe and effective in the 150-patient WEB-IT trial. The trial results are now published in the Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery.

Medtronic is encouraged by new data on endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm presented at the Charing Cross Symposium, including preliminary data from the ANCHOR registry on Endurant used in combination with the Heli-FX Endoanchor system. At the same meeting, 30-day results from 100 patients in the pivotal trial of Valiant Navion thoracic stent graft system showed high rates of procedural success in patients with a thoracic aortic aneurysm and penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer.