Reusable medical devices may undergo hundreds or even thousands of cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization cycles. But how do manufacturers and healthcare professionals determine when a device has reached the end of its useful life?
In this episode of AAMI’s Below the Hospital podcast, host Garland-Rhea Grisby Sr. speaks with Alpa Patel of Nelson Labs about research examining how repeated reprocessing can affect medical device materials and why a risk-based approach to end-of-life evaluation may be more meaningful than relying on a predetermined number of reprocessing cycles.
Listen to the discussion to learn more about:
- How repeated reprocessing can affect device materials over time
- Why end-of-life evaluation should consider more than cycle count
- The role of real-world use and reprocessing conditions
- Considerations for developing a risk-based approach to device end of life
Listen to the full episode below.
