Better data collection on medical devices needed for safer use

New York

THINGS sometimes go wrong with air bags, food and drugs, prompting recalls. It can also happen with medical devices, though you'd think lifesaving devices such as heart defibrillators or artificial hips would be closely monitored.

But the data needed to systematically and rapidly identify dangerous medical devices are not routinely collected in the US. It would not be that hard to do.

Problems with medical devices are not infrequent. Defibrillators implanted in nearly 200,000 patients were recalled in 2011 because of a fau…