The company Vanguard specializes in the reprocessing of single-use medical devices, the medical remanufacturing. In an interview, CEO Marcus Bracklo reports that the topic of sustainability is now very popular with customers and why his company is relaxed about the new European Regulation for Medical Devices (EU-MDR).
Mr. Bracklo, Vanguard AG has been reprocessing medical instruments for around 20 years. To what extent has remanufacturing changed?
For one, medical instruments have become more complex, which makes recovery more challenging. Modern ablation catheters, for example, which are used to obliterate muscle tissue in cardiac arrhythmias, have narrow lumens through which coolant is passed. For remanufacturing, we need special machines for reliable cleaning and disinfection of such instruments , which we have developed ourselves because cleaning with commercially available systems does not work. At the moment there is a completely different development. The aspect of sustainability is becoming more and more important for our customers, the hospitals. Recovered products are not only significantly cheaper than the new product, theCarbon footprint is also dramatically lower. While the issue of cost- effectiveness has so far played a decisive role for the clinics, we now hear more and more often that customers attach importance to conserving resources…
Visit Medicin and Teknik for the full interview.