Medical Device Company Suddenly Stops Hospitals From Fixing Machines Themselves

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

As consumer companies including Apple and Samsung start opening up their hardware products to independent repair, and legislators put pressure on companies like John Deere to do the same, others are resisting the right-to-repair movement. A medical device company that makes a machine for heart surgeries has told hospitals recently that it will no longer allow their in-house technicians to repair the devices themselves. Hospitals will now need to enter into repair contracts directly with the manufacturer.

Terumo Cardiovascular makes the product, called the Advanced Perfusion System 1 Heart Lung Machine, which reroutes blood during open-heart surgeries to keep a patient alive during surgery. According to 404 Media, Terumo told hospitals last month that it would stop offering certification classes for repairs of the devices.

The job of an independent repair technician used to be more commonplace-there were individuals who could fix everything from TVs to dishwashers and automobiles. But today more hardware is filled with chips and software, and companies like Apple have said the software on their devices is copyrighted intellectual property; allowing anyone to look under the hood and conduct modifications could lead to security or reliability risks.

[...] In many cases, however, devices today are more like services. Instead of buying a refrigerator or smart thermostat once and being able to do with it whatever the owner would like, any type of upgrade or fix often requires returning to the company that sold it. Research suggests it is a fundamental reason we have so much waste in the world today. TV will not turn on? Either get it fixed under warranty or throw it away, because getting a new one may just be cheaper.

[...] Lawmakers have recently complained that like medical device companies, the automakers are making it difficult for independent repair companies to access software data and diagnostics under the same guise that it would risk security. And they are doing so in violation of right-to-repair laws passed in states including Massachusetts explicitly to enable independent shops to access software diagnostics.

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