[Medical technical equipment--not so dangerous after all?].

More than a decade has passed since the Ofstad committee presented its report on "Control of medical devices". The committee assumed that the use of medical devices constituted a major safety problem in the Norwegian health care system. The frequency of device-related injuries to patients was expected to be high, especially since the amount of non-recorded injuries was expected to be large. During the period since the publication of the report, several medical device reporting systems have been established, and special injury committees have been formed in some hospitals. Several "ombudsmen" for patients now exist, and both a patients' association and an insurance system for compensation to injured patients have been established. Despite this, we still do not know the total number of medical device-related injuries to patients in Norway. However, the existing records do show that device-related injuries to patients are not as abundant as the Ofstad committee feared.