FDA Finally Adds to Fall 2020 Recognized Consensus Standards db for Cycle Update

Updated 22 Dec 2020 – In the last couple of years, the FDA has started to post the standards updates on their Recognized Consensus Standards db prior to publishing in the Federal Register (FR). This year, being the year we all will not forget (thx COVID-19), the Fall update was delayed longer than normal. It was just published today (21 Dec 2020). I have been asking my associates at the S-CAP (Standards and Conformity Assessment Program) for the last several weeks / months when the update would show up and they haven’t been able to give me a straight answer. Finally, it showed up! Below is a spreadsheet of the standards that have updated as of 21 December 2020. 99 standards were added to the FDA standards db. The IEC 60601 Amendments IEC 60601-1-2 ed. 4.1, IEC 60601-1-6 ed. 3.2, IEC 60601-1-8 ed. 2.2, IEC 60601-1-10 ed. 1.2, IEC 60601-1-11 ed. 2.1, IEC 60601-1-12 ed. 1.1 have all been added to the db.

Surprisingly, IEC 60601-1 ed 3.2 is not included in the Recognized Consensus Standards db update. Only AAMI ES60601-1:2005 + A1:2012 (FR Recognition # 19-4) or the 60601-1 ed 3.1 with US national deviations is still in the db.

Update to post — 22 Dec 2020 — I just found out from the FDA they are awaiting the update of ANSI AAMI ES 60601-1 before they add to the FDA Recognized Consesnsus Standards db. AAMI just sent out ANSI AAMI ES 60601-1 A2 to the ES committee for vote, which I am on, so my guess is it will publish around April if there are no snags or negative votes.

IEC 60601-1-9 ed. 1.2 is not on the FDA list as 60601-1-9 isn’t a Recognized Consensus Standard. Also, a reminder that IEC 60601-1-3 was not part of the original Amendments project but now is scheduled to be updated as an IEC standard in March 2021. So, FDA hopefully will add to their Spring 2021 update. It is a really minor update with mostly just references to updates of the general standard being updated to ed 3.2 (2020).