Assessment of the environmental impacts of medical devices: a review
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Assessment of the environmental impacts of medical devices: a review Ana Catarina Sousa1,2 · Anabela Veiga3 · Ana Collete Maurício1,2 · Maria Ascensão Lopes4 · José Domingos Santos4 · Belmira Neto5 Received: 20 February 2020 / Accepted: 7 November 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Medical devices (MDs) are important health instruments, encompassing an enormous diversity of products, from simple ligatures to pacemakers, bone grafts or auxiliary life support machines. Despite the growing social and economic relevance of the MD industry in the health sector, its environmental problems have only recently started to be discussed. MDs companies worldwide are being pressed to assess the environmental impacts of their products by considering the full life cycle. These pressures are leading to the use of tools which promote fact-based environmental decision-making toward a more sustainable health sector. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and eco-design are well-known methods which may provide the MDs industrial sector with knowledge of the environmental impacts associated with their products and subsequently promote informed decisions leading to more sustainable materials, devices and services. This paper selects and reviews relevant studies using the methodology of LCA or eco-design, either applied in a singular basis or simulated, to access impacts of MDs. Seeking for a comparative analysis, this review is extended to LCA studies for the most used material in the MDs industry: the polymers. Results show that the number of studies is not vast, realizing the yet scarce use of either LCA and eco-design in the scientific literature for MDs. Nevertheless, it is observed that when applied either LCA and eco-deign can promote grounds for an increase in the environmental sustainability of MDs. Keywords Eco-design · Environmental impact · Healthcare industry · Life cycle assessment · Medical devices · Sustainability
1 Introduction According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a medical device (MD) is any product or equipment used with a medical purpose, i.e., an equipment for diagnosis, prevention, monitoring and treatment of a health condition (WHO 2018). The materials used in a MD influence the mechanical requirements, costs, manufacturing process, Ana Catarina Sousa and Anabela Veiga are equally contributed. * Belmira Neto [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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availability, maintenance and patient safety. There are several materials (including metals and alloys, polymers, ceramics and composites) that can fulfill the mentioned needs and assist manufacturers in creating high-quality and cost-effective MDs (Kucklick 2012; Laboratories 2013). Due to its versatility and biocompatibility, polymers are largely used in the MD industrial sector (Modjarrad 2014). Nowadays, in Europe there are more than 500.000 MDs available, aiming to improve quality and extend the lives of patients (APORMED 2018; Commission 2012). However, despite
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