Steps had to be taken to identify the gender of those within the database as although the FDA gathers information on the sex of patients, this data is not made publicly available. Therefore, in order to overcome this obstacle, the ICIJ realised that the sex of patients was sometimes disclosed through pronouns and adjectives within the incident reports submitted to the FDA.
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Talking about the findings, the ICIJ stated: “The trend we noticed is consistent with studies that have shown that women experience higher rates of hip-implant failure than men and have stronger immunological reactions to metal-containing devices.”
Other experts within the industry were keen to voice their opinion over the importance of looking at the effects of medical devices on different genders. Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research commented: “Having information about sex is very important because some products differ in safety between men and women.”
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