Let's not sugarcoat this. The world's manufacturing base is at war with COVID-19 and its destructive, disruptive effects on everything from supply chains to daily production levels and, ultimately, the health of everyone. Getting ahead of this curve will require a much more aggressive approach to using data.

For medical device manufacturing, quality is crucial. To ensure quality in production, audits of the manufacturing facilities by a government health organization are standard. The audits and inspections are not, however, standard between countries. The Medical Device Single Audit Program (MDSAP) is looking to change that.

While manufacturers agree that the quality revolution that began in the 1980s is a good thing, quality does not seem to have improved as a result.