(REUT) US plans IDs to track medical device safety

WASHINGTON, July 3 (Reuters) - Medical devices like hip implants and heart defibrillators will soon join the ranks of cars and toasters.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday proposed a new rule that would require each medical device to have a unique code that could improve tracking and catch safety problems earlier. The proposal comes five years after Congress first mandated the codes.

While these codes are already present for most consumer goods, in the ubiquitous barcodes scanned at the grocery store, they have been absent from life-sustaining medical devices.

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