WASHINGTON, July 19 (UPI) -- Scrutiny and monitoring of medical devices used by children needs to be improved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a panel has recommended.
A report by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine urges Congress to make sure the FDA establishes procedures and makes information from studies available to the public.
Medical manufacturers make thousands of devices that are used by children, as diverse as lice combs and limb prostheses. Some devices are designed solely for use in medical settings, while others are meant for use at home, USA Today said.
Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., who has long focused on children's health, said all too often in medicine, "children are merely treated like miniature adults."
Many devices, such as mechanical ventilators, do double duty "as the care of children shifts from the hospital to home," said report co-author George Lister of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. "There's not much data to tell us how these devices function in the real world," he said.
