Medical device industry efforts to increase healthcare value.

Although governmental healthcare reform initiatives have come to a stop in Washington, DC, the healthcare delivery system is, nevertheless, being transformed. Change is being driven by managed care organizations, which are looking for increased cost-effectiveness, and by providers of care and suppliers of medical products, who are trying to differentiate themselves from their competitors on the basis of service and quality. The efforts of one medical device company, Medtronic, are indicative of what the medical device industry is doing to increase the value (cost and quality) of healthcare.