Things sometimes go wrong with airbags, food and medicine, leading to recalls. It can also happen with medical devices, although you would think that life-saving devices such as heart defibrillators or artificial hips would be closely monitored.

But the data needed to systematically and quickly identify dangerous medical devices is not routinely collected in the United States. Why not? It wouldn't be that hard to do.

That is the topic of this week's Care Triage.

This episode is adapted from a column Austin Frakt wrote for the Upshot. Links to sources and further reading can be found there: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/19/upshot/why-medical-devices-arent-safer.html

John Green – executive producer
Stan Muller – director, producer
Aaron Carroll – Writer
Mark Olsen – Graphic

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