The World of Medical Devices

Abstract

The world of medical devices is a complex, fragmented and paradoxical one. Its boundaries and contours are difficult to delineate, its societal participants not always obvious or easy to discern, its rules of engagement variable and contested, information about it relatively difficult to obtain, its technologies multiple and interdependent, its technology classifications labyrinthine and bureaucratic. In short, from the perspective of wider society, the world of medical devices is obscure. Paradoxically however, as citizens we are surrounded by this world and its particularities, and we interact with it by a multitude of routes in our daily lives, in sickness and in health. Medical devices enter into our intimate and family relationships, into our understandings of health and disease, our values and beliefs, our practices of looking after our own health, as well as our experience of healthcare systems and healthcare professionals’ work.