Medical devices are important to provide health care and to improve the health of individuals and populations. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes this. One of WHO’s strategic objectives is to ensure improved access, quality and use of medical devices. Without medical devices, routine medical procedures - from bandaging a sprained ankle, to diagnosing HIV/AIDS or implanting an artificial hip - would be impossible. Concurrently, modern technology is producing an overwhelming abundance of medical devices at a rate that soon makes the latest device obsolete. Key issues affecting progress include the extreme diversity of the medical device arena - diverse in terms of types of devices, degrees of complexity, applications, usage, users and categories and issues like the context dependency of medical devices and research in medical devices often not based on public health needs.