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A Community Level Sample Survey to Determine CurrentUnderstanding About Medical Recycling of Cardiovascular
Milan Mahesh1, Munish Sharma2, Daniel An Mascarenhas3,4
1Moravian Academy, Bethlehem, PA, USA.
Insights
Medical device recycling, including cardiovascular implantable electronic devices (CIEDs), can help patients lacking insurance. Awareness and understanding among the public and healthcare professionals are crucial for the success of CIED reutilization programs.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Public Health
- Medical Ethics
Background:
- Cardiovascular implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) recycling and reutilization offer significant benefits, particularly for uninsured or low-income populations.
- Limited public and healthcare professional understanding may hinder the adoption of recycled medical devices.
- No prior community-level studies have assessed knowledge and attitudes regarding medical device recycling.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess community and healthcare personnel knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding the recycling of CIEDs.
- To identify barriers and facilitators for CIED reutilization.
- To inform public health initiatives promoting medical device recycling.
Main Methods:
- A Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) survey was administered online to community members, healthcare professionals, and funeral home staff in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania.
- The questionnaire focused on assessing awareness, perceptions, and willingness to participate in medical device recycling.
- Data analysis involved comparing responses across different demographic groups.
Main Results:
- Community participants (30.77%) showed lower awareness of medical device recycling compared to healthcare professionals (57.30%).
- A significant majority of healthcare professionals (88.64%) and community members (73.50%) were aware of CIED affordability issues leading to patient deaths.
- Healthcare professionals expressed a higher willingness to consider medical device donation compared to community participants.
Conclusions:
- Reutilization of CIEDs can substantially enhance the quality of life for socioeconomically disadvantaged patients.
- Public awareness campaigns are essential to highlight the benefits of CIED reutilization.
- Addressing concerns related to device-related infections, complications, and legal liabilities is vital for increasing the utility of recycled CIEDs.
Background:
Medical recycling and reutilization of cardiovascular implantableelectronic devices (CIEDs) have a significant impact not only in patientsof low-income countries but may also in certain patients in the UnitedStates who do not have sufficient medical insurance coverage. Themain determining factor for future utility and popularity of recycledmedical devices is thorough understanding about this topic amongstpublic and healthcare professional. To the best of our knowledge,there has been no study conducted so far at a community level to determinethe understanding in public and healthcare personnel about recyclingof medical devices including CIEDs. We sought to determine existingknowledge and attitude about recycling of CIEDs amongst representativesample population in a community.
Methods:
A questionnaire was sent for online completion to multiple peoplein the community, healthcare and funeral home in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania,USA. The questionnaire was designed in order to assess three maincategories; knowledge, attitude and practice. We called this a KAPstudy which is an acronym for knowledge, attitude and practice survey.
Results:
We got 117 responses to our questionnaire from community members(55.45%), 89 responses (42.18%) from the healthcare personnel andfive responses (2.37%) from funeral homes. About 30.77% communityparticipants had heard about medical devices recycling compared to57.30% participants from healthcare sector. A total of 88.64% of medicalprofessionals were aware that there are people in the world who diebecause they cannot afford CIEDs while 73.50% of community participantswere also found to be aware of this fact. Higher percentages of healthcareprofessionals were found to be willing to personally consider a decisionabout medical device donation compared to community participants.
Conclusions:
CIED reutilization can improve quality of life among many patientswith low or medium socioeconomic status. People should be made moreaware about the benefits of CIED reutilization. Concerns about device-relatedinfections, complications and law suits should be addressed to helpimprove their utility.
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