The tightening of the EU regulatory system will increase timelines for the availability of devices, especially novel, high-risk devices. But those who believe the US system will be quicker should not be so eager to jump to conclusions. Clinical data expert Sarah Sorrel explains why.

In this week's podcast, senior reporter Catherine Longworth provides an update on how the Demant Group is recovering from a ransomware attack that forced the Danish hearing-aid manufacturer to shut down its IT systems, and deputy editor Reed Miller reviews the highlights of the clinical trial presentations at the recent Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference in San Francisco.

Intervention with Abbott’s Xience everolimus-eluting stent yielded similar long-term results as bypass surgery in the EXCEL trial.

With the US FDA urging providers to transition away from fixed duodenoscopes to newer designs that reduce or eliminate reprocessing of the device, Pentax Medical is seizing an opportunity to increase supply of its disposable cap scope. Medtech Insight talks to the company’s global clinical officer, Garrett Hudson, on the challenges of endoscopy hygiene and the company’s response to guidance.

In this edition of Device Week, Medtech Insight managing editor Marion Webb chats with deputy editor Reed Miller about the most recent earnings report from Johnson & Johnson, and talks with London-based Catherine Longworth about her upcoming "taboo" tech coverage from the 2019 Global Innovation and New Technology Health Event (GIANT).

The US FDA's device center has released its annual proposed guidance document lists for fiscal year 2020. Industry experts pointed out that the lists don't address the agency's software precertification program that it has been working on so hard. That may just mean the issue has fallen off of the FDA's radar or the agency needs congressional authority to move ahead with issuing guidances on the topic, an industry expert says. Also notable is a lack of an artificial intelligence guidance.

A new trial in Hong Kong applies to class II, III and IV medical devices that are already approved by South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Newly finalized guidance from the US agency updates its recommendations for 510(k) submissions for guidewires intended for use in coronary vasculature, peripheral vasculature and neurovasculature. The document, which replaces a 1995 guidance, reflects serious risks posed by certain guidewire coatings.

After discovering a correlation between certain chemically coated devices and serious adverse events, the agency has issued a couple of final guidance documents, including a labeling guidance to increase public awareness of the risks. The coating is meant to help physicians more easily slide devices – such as catheters and guidewires – into patients, but in some cases they’ve been associated with obstruction of blood vessels, stroke and death.