The events in the global financial markets are a reminder of the interconnected nature of the modern world. So are some of the headlines from this week's stories. Standards and methods adopted by another country or continent can have significant influence on the standards and practices here and vice versa. This is encouraging greater global coordination between regulatory bodies. The FDA, Advamed, AAMI and other domestic standards and regulatory bodies are increasingly paying attention to products manufactured on foreign shores and seeking to arrive at common standards of practice with their counterparts overseas. We all know how difficult consensus can be in a single country (or even single organization). But times are demanding consensus on a global scale on many key issues related to delivering sterile, well functioning products to patients.