The Bleeding Edge

Directed by Kirby Dick, this Netflix documentary examines the four hundred billion dollar medical device industry and the question of accountability when devices designed to heal patients harm them instead. Its central structural critique is that ninety eight percent of devices in the United States clear a pathway requiring no clinical trial: a manufacturer need only show its device is substantially equivalent to one already approved, and products can qualify by reference to products that themselves qualified by reference to older ones. The cases covered include the permanent contraceptive Essure, metal hip implants, vaginal mesh and a robotic surgical system. The most striking story belongs to an Alaskan orthopedist who, after receiving a hip implant himself, suffered a frightening mental decline, tested his own blood, found cobalt at a hundred times normal levels, and then tried to convince colleagues that patients with failing implants were being diagnosed with dementia when the condition might be reversible. Bayer announced it would withdraw Essure from the US market exactly one week before the film's Netflix release, citing business reasons rather than safety, and pushed back hard against the film. Who it's for: Anyone drawn to investigative documentary about healthcare and corporate accountability. Who it's not for: Not for viewers disturbed by medical imagery and surgical footage.