Hi Susan! Thanks for the link, but it still doesn't say who made the capacitors, or exactly what the nature of the problem is. There were a few statements in the article that raised my eyebrows: -"Guidant had reduced the rigor of its quality- control programs, contributing to the rash of product recalls..." -"There used to be more testing. There used to be more checking. They used to do process development in parallel with product development. For whatever reason, they got away from some of those kind of things, and I think you're starting to see the result of that..." -"The new problem involves a failure of a capacitor, a tiny part that stores electrical charges, Boston said. Tobin said Guidant didn't find flaws in a small percentage of the capacitors, built by a supplier whose name wasn't disclosed. -"These capacitors were clearly out of spec. That should never have happened, and it happened. Batch after batch after batch, and now we're paying the price." -"Guidant was cutting corners basically to advance its product line, keep its technology fresh or whatever it was." -An independent panel named by Guidant to investigate the quality problems in its cardiac rhythm business concluded that they stemmed in large part from lax oversight by management, understaffing of product engineering positions and failure to involve medical experts in assessing questions of patient safety. As details of this incident are disclosed, you really shake your head. How does something like this happen with a implantable medical device company? I have an uncle who wears a pacemaker. He's had his in for quite a few years, so hopefully his pacemaker doesn't have a problem. But can you imagine the stress you would be having if you were a patient that just had one of these devices put inside you to keep you alive? -Steve Gregory- -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Susan Mansilla Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 7:43 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Bad capacitors in Boston Scientific Defibrillators and Pacemakers Here is a link to this morning's update in the Indianapolis paper describing the problems. Susan Hott http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060627/BUSINESS/606 270421 --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------