Healthcare is a very small part of polymer usage and as such the drivers for the manufacturers come from other industry sectors. In addition to this healthcare has more stringent requirements to most of those other industries, such as notification of change, fixed formulations and traceability. Polymer manufacturers wish to manage their risk and as such limit their portfolio to a small number of medical grade plastics. Often suppliers are not involved in the buying process until over half way through the project and this can lead to issues with matching material selection to materials with the correct support package. This presentation will explain the background and how to manage risk associated with material selection.