A Technical Assessment Tool to Prioritize Medical Devices Replacement

The objective of this work was to develop a technical evaluation tool (related to the state of operation) to prioritize the replacement of medical devices. The result was a technical indicator with which 608 medical devices of nine different technologies were evaluated, from the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER, its Spanish Acronym). This evaluation provided auxiliary criteria for the Department of Biomedical Engineering (DIB, its Spanish Acronym) to make decisions based on evidence, and to plan the replacement of the medical devices. The replacement priority distribution was as follows: 398 devices must be replaced in a period not longer than six years (medium priority); 127 obtained a low priority (replacement in 10 years); and the smallest percentage of medical devices (14%) must be replaced in the next three years (high priority). This evaluation provided an auxiliary criterion to the INER DIB staff, to make decisions about the replacement of medical devices, based on evidence.