Medtronic to Release Malfunction Data Beyond FDA

Medtronic, the nation’s biggest manufacturer of heart devices, has said that it was considering making available to doctors and patients some of the datat concerning product malfunctions that until now only provided to federal regulators. Currently, manufacturers of devices like defibrillators and pacemakers provide the FDA far more details about how and why those devices are malfunctioning than they currently give to doctors. Medtronic already provides more information to doctors than its two leading competitors, Guidant and St. Jude Medical.