General > General Technical Chat
Medtronic “MedCareLink”: send back or keep?
eti:
Hi. Someone I know had one of those implanted heart monitors fitted a few years ago, and it has now expired. It talks to this Medtronic “MyCareLink” receiver, as seen ALL OVER eBay and the like: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225139998979?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338749389&toolid=20006&customid=GB_26395_225139998979.148415532128~1868700197267-g_Cj0KCQiAkMGcBhCSARIsAIW6d0BE0FT1jTUmRwQ7GF3XFB7GrvoW5_EOAe37v5NQQAMM7c_SK4nPNCgaAsNhEALw_wcB
Said person would like to know whether they send the receiver gizmo back to the surgery, or whether I can have it to take apart. I said I’d think they’re one of those things that needs to be SO reliable, that I don’t think a used one would be supplied, when the very purpose of the system is literally life or death.
For the price they are listed @ ebay, this makes me think its no good to anyone after use, is considered an expense that has been written off, and people are just like "<shrug> well what will I get for it on eBay? I dunno what else to do with it"
They don’t seem to have much of a significant value, as said person's last one went wrong a few months ago, and they were told to toss r and were sent a new one.
Does anyone know? I’d be interested to crack it open and have a gander inside. My location is UK btw.
Many thanks :)
PS: found someone who has taken one apart: https://incoherency.co.uk/blog/stories/medtronic-mycarelink.html
SiliconWizard:
Does the equipment belong to the user or is it still owned by the company? That's what would matter here I think. There should be legal mentions in the user's manual?
If the user owns it, then I guess they can do whatever they want with it once they have no use for it anymore, except, sure, just throw it away with normal trash, but just like any other electronic device.
The company probably has a procedure for handling returns and properly having them recycled as per the law, but the user can probably keep it otherwise and it becomes their own responsability to properly dispose of the device. If the company said to toss it away, I don't see a single reason why you should even bother returning it if you have any use for it. Just handle it as any other electronic equipment.
thm_w:
Yeah unless they were specifically told to return it for analysis, its deemed one time use.
I'm sure it still works fine, but they don't want to deal with getting it back, sterilizing it, verifying it works, etc.
I've had a holter monitor (records ecg and ekg), which they get back, pull the data off and re-use. The wire leads and case for the device are going to be thrown out.
eti:
--- Quote from: thm_w on December 08, 2022, 10:33:23 pm ---Yeah unless they were specifically told to return it for analysis, its deemed one time use.
I'm sure it still works fine, but they don't want to deal with getting it back, sterilizing it, verifying it works, etc.
I've had a holter monitor (records ecg and ekg), which they get back, pull the data off and re-use. The wire leads and case for the device are going to be thrown out.
--- End quote ---
This device contains a cellular modem which sends ECG telemetry back to their centres for monitoring. The fact eBay is rammed full of the same unit, leads me to believe that the "one use and trash it" holds true.
Stray Electron:
FWIW Ebay used to get very nasty with sellers that tried to sell medical equipment on there.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version