Calling it something of a “culture change” at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), Director Jeffrey Shuren said his team is working hard to find ways to speed approval of new medical devices by, in part, placing more stress on patient needs when looking at high-risk devices.

If potential users believe a product’s benefits outweigh its potential risks, Shuren said the agency is more likely to approve it today. “We want to make the U.S. a much more attractive market for medical device innovations,” he told attendees at this month’s Drug Information Association convention in Washington, D.C., acknowledging that the United States has some of the toughest standards blocking the way between device manufacture and approval.

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