Meeting the highest medical devices quality standards
High quality medical devices are crucial for today’s health sector. Doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals depend on reliable, safe products for screening, diagnosis, treatment and care. The plastic material polyvinyl chloride, also known as vinyl or simply PVC, has a long track record in healthcare. The first breakthrough was in the 1950s when robust plastic blood bags replaced breakable glass containers during the Korean War, saving thousands of lives. Since then, PVC-based medical devices have been used for billions of patient days of acute and chronic exposure without report of any effects. The material continues to prove its worth, as innovation within the medical device value chain progressively makes an ever-widening range of medical equipment that meets the highest medical devices quality standards available. Now, it is also possible to replace DEHP phthalate with alternative plasticisers (US: plasticizers) for most applications while keeping PVC’s unique properties, namely its unsurpassed softness.
Compliance with regulation ensures quality
The PVC medical device value chain is committed to the highest medical devices quality standards: every new device put on the market is subject to stringent pre- and post-market control and evaluation procedures to ensure safety and performance. Moreover, PVC medical equipment have undergone strict regulatory review by many government and independent health agencies around the world. This ensures that patients and healthcare professionals have access to quality medical devices when needed.
