As consumer companies including Apple and Samsung begin to open up their hardware products to independent repair, and lawmakers put pressure with companies like John Deere doing the same, others are fighting the right-to-repair movement. A medical device company that makes a machine for heart surgeries recently told hospitals that it would no longer allow their in-house technicians to repair the devices themselves. Hospitals will now be required to enter into repair contracts directly with the manufacturer.
Terumo Cardiovascular makes the product, called the Advanced Perfusion System 1 Heart Lung Machine, that reroutes blood during open-heart surgeries to keep a patient alive during surgery. According to 404 MediaTerumo told hospitals last month it would stop offering certification classes for repairing the devices.
The job of an independent repair technician used to be more common—there were individuals who could fix everything from TVs to dishwashers and cars. But today more hardware is packed with chips and software, and companies like Apple say the software in their devices is copyrighted intellectual property; allowing anyone to look under the hood and make changes can lead to security or reliability risks.
Apple has begun to loosen its grip on repairs, after years of criticism for the pretense of providing environmental sustainability while simultaneously blocking repairs that could extend a device's lifespan. The company is now offering official replacement part and repair tools for some devices with plans to expand this support in the future. Reports suggest it is still complicated to repair an iPhone independentlybut this is a start. Samsung also supports independent repair of its smartphones.
In many cases, however, devices today are more like services. Instead of buying a refrigerator or smart thermostat once and having it do what the owner wants, any kind of upgrade or repair often requires a return to the company that sold it. Research suggests that it is a main reason we have a lot of garbage in the world today. TV won't turn on? Either fix it under warranty or throw it away, because getting a new one might be cheaper.
Making hardware into an essential service is inherently inflationary due to lock-in. If there was an open market for repairing devices like the Terumo, hospitals could potentially get better prices. For example: in a report, the Federal Trade Commission found that medical device manufacturers sometimes overcharged 2-3 times what an independent technician would charge. And US health care costs are already astronomically high.
To see how things could be, look no further than the cars of yesteryear. Over the years, independent auto body shops have thrived. BMWs or Fords can be repaired by anyone with a wrench and some elbows. But as cars also become more computerized, access to digital information is needed to diagnose and fix problems, such as a malfunctioning backup camera.
Lawmakers recently complained that like medical device companies, auto makers are making it difficult for independent repair companies to access software data and diagnostics under the same pretense that it would pose a security risk. And they do so in violation of right-to-repair laws passed in states including Massachusetts that explicitly enable independent shops to access diagnostic software.
The harms of lock-in are clear. There are several independent repair shops that can service Teslas—besides the high prices, owners of those cars have complained about slow or poor service from the company's official technicians. In the case of Terumo, what if it is too slow to respond when a critical device needs repair for operations?
Of course, Terumo said medical devices are sensitive and complex, and allowing anyone to fix them risks patient safety. It also said 404 that the company saw a decrease in demand for participation in its training program. But if Apple can figure out how to make third-party fixes work, maybe Terumo can too. Hospital maintenance technicians are technicians after all—they should do whatever Terumo's in-house technicians can do.
