Assessment of the Awareness, Attitude and Practices of Materiovigilance amongst Healthcare Professionals: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract Background The healthcare sector is laden with life-saving medical equipment, and the rate and pattern of medical-device-induced adverse events are more alarming for patient safety. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) lack an adequate understanding of and underreported medical device-associated adverse events (MDAEs) observed in the literature review. The present study aimed to determine the knowledge, attitude, and awareness of materiovigilance among HCPs. Methods A descriptive, cross-sectional, self-administered, validated questionnaire-based study was conducted on HCPs. A 15-item questionnaire comprising the knowledge, attitude, and awareness domains of Materiovigilance was given to the volunteers, and their responses were collected and analyzed. Results A total of 49 responses were collected from different HCPs from distinct professional and demographic backgrounds, where the majority of the respondents [n = 26 (53%)] were males; the majority of them belonged to the age group of 20-25years [n = 21 (42%)], and [n = 30 (61%)] belonged to the group of 0–3 years in terms of their experience. Among them, the highest percentage of 30 (61.2%) of the personnel (physicians, clinical pharmacists, biomedical engineers, and nurses) were involved in detecting and reporting MDAEs in a hospital setting, and 13 (26.5%) of them responded to promote and enhance patient safety by improving device manufacturing and opined the purpose of the Materiovigilance Programme of India (MvPI). Conclusion Despite inadequate knowledge and practice of Materiovigilance among HCPs, their attitude towards Materiovigilance was reassuring. Therefore, MDAEs require meticulous patient monitoring, and workshops, seminars, and training sessions on Materiovigilance are needed for HCPs to enhance the detection, handling, and reporting of MDAEs for the sake of patient care.