Join me, Leo Eisner, The IEC 60601 Guy, as I lead an interactive and fun workshop at the 10X Medical Device Conference in Newport Beach, Ca on May 7 – 8, 2025. Turn Medical Device Standards into Your Competitive Advantage, and discover practical strategies to leverage standards, avoid costly errors, and accelerate your product development cycle.

Don’t make the 5 costly mistakes companies make with Medical Device Standards. Learn from the IEC 60601 Guy himself.:

• Late Identification of Applicable Standards: Leads to expensive redesigns and delayed timelines
• Ignoring Expert Standards Guidance: Results in regulatory rejections and costly resubmissions
• Unprepared Risk Management File for Testing: Risks unnecessary costs due to lack of strategic planning for compliance.
• Unprepared Regulatory Submissions: Leads to costly setbacks and market-entry delays
• Underestimating Education and Training: Creates knowledge gaps, increasing errors and compliance risks.

I want to thank Sean Smith and his team from 10X for all his help and dedication for putting on this event. He is doing an amazing job and please contact him if you are interested.

Need help with standards?

We provide support for your design and development process for regulatory submissions.? Eisner Safety Consultants can help by

• Assisting with strategic compliance planning for your medical electrical product lines,
• Providing regulatory support when FDA or a regulator asks technical questions on your submission.
• Identification of applicable standards, laws, regulations, guidances, and directives up front to support your design process effectively.
• Design Documentation Reviews providing expert analysis supporting the design development process to avoid unnecessary design and development delays.
• We provide EU, US, and other countries regulatory requirement reviews of standards, laws, directives, and guidance.
• Providing support with Swiss MedDO, EU MDR, clinical evaluation assessment, NB remediation, STEDs, and more.
• Interfacing with test houses for medical safety, EMC and arrange other testing.

Feel free to schedule a web meeting with Leo or contact us.

Last week, 29 Apr – 3 May 2024, marked a significant milestone for the advancement in the world of patient safety and healthcare. The IEC TC 62/SC 62A convened its IEC 60601-1, 4th edition project kick-off meeting at AAMI in Arlington, Virginia. More than 200 experts from all corners of the globe attended in person, contributing to an inspiring and impactful week-long meeting.

The focus of this meeting was “level setting” all the parties on the development of requirements for the 4th edition of IEC 60601-1, which sets safety requirements for medical electrical equipment (also known as active medical devices). Twelve working groups (WGs) gathered to strategize their efforts, guided by the Design Specification for the 4th edition and the Architecture Specification.  The first day was set with training to help all parties get an understanding of project requirements and ask questions based on the Design Specification and the Architecture Specification. The next 3 days focused on the 12 WGs working on their strategies for the start of the project and the plans to move forward. The last day was a wrap-up and getting feedback on how to improve the process with lots of great discussion from the week. 

An Advisory Group (AG 50) is used to collaborate with all 12 WG co-convenors and secretaries, and IEC SC 62A officers ensuring the overall success of the project.

As a co-convenor for WG39, which addresses User Interfaces (Including information provided by the manufacturer, Alarm Systems and Usability Engineering Process), I am honored to be part of this excursion in the development of this standard for the support of the healthcare industry for the next edition. Alongside my co-convener, Martin Stangenberg, we led discussions and consensus-building within our WG. Our WG is comprised of amazing experts.  We had over 30 experts in the room including regulators from 5 countries; test houses; usability, labeling, alarm systems, and robotics experts. We had over half of our experts from the whole WG in attendance at the meeting. Our responsibilities include coordinating with other experts to develop basic safety and essential performance requirements related to User Interface Aspects Hazards for our part of the standard. Each WG is working on a different set of hazards as described in the post “IEC 60601-1, 4th ed. — Where do we stand?“.

As an expert on WG37, I also spent part of the week with WG 37 developing requirements related to general issues concerning underlying concepts including basic safety & essential performance, single fault safety, type testing.  Correlation with processes relevant for IEC 60601-1 defined by other process standards (e.g., risk management) for IEC 60601-1, 4^th ed.

It was great to meet all the new people and see them get involved for the first time in the standardization process as well as work with familiar faces I have worked with for many years. It is a well-rounded group of individuals, supporting this next edition, with many different perspectives but with the mindset to provide the patient with a safe product.

I extend my appreciation to all who have made this happen — the officers, the design specification and architecture specification teams (a long road to get here), my mentors, and all the national committee experts for coming together in this massive effort. Now the real work of the experts in the WGs begins….

Need help with 60601 series standards (Medical Electrical Equipment) including EMC; training to 3rd or 4th edition; strategic planning for your medical electrical product lines; need support when FDA or a regulator asks questions for a submission Eisner Safety Consultants experts deal with EU, US, & other country regulatory requirements & standards, laws, directives, and more. Leo Eisner is an expert on standards development and sits on many standards committees. He also has experts on additional standards committees and we all talk to the regulators. He has a team of experts to support your needs.

We work with many test labs for Medical Electrical Safety & EMC and can arrange other testing, as well. Please let us know if we can help when you contact us.

Feel free to schedule a call with Leo or contact Leo at Leo@EisnerSafety.com or through our contact form.

Draft EUDAMED roadmap (of modules*) was published on 20 Oct 2023 with updated timelines for each module and mandatory use dates for the MDR & IVDR.

Q4’ 2027: Article 123 (3) (d) MDR/113 (3) (f) IVDR

• Actor (Economic Operators register in EUDAMED; Supervising Entities has access to EUDAMED that is not public),
• Certificates (Active, suspended, reinstated, withdrawn, refused, other restrictions on certificates),
• MSU (Evaluation of devices on the market by Competent Authorities),
• Vigilance (& Post Market Surveillance), and
• CI/PS (Before a device is placed on the market – Clinical Investigation and Performance Study)

Q2’ 2029: Article 123 (3) (e) MDR/113 (3) (a) IVDR

• Devices (Based on UDIs registered in EUDAMED) and
• Certificates (see above)

* For a brief explanation of EUDAMED modules refer to the below

Need help with Medical Electrical Equipment standards (60601/80601 series) including Safety/EMC; strategic planning for your medical electrical product lines; need support when FDA or a regulator asks questions for a submission Eisner Safety Consultants experts deal with EU, US, & other country regulatory requirements & standards, laws, directives, and more. Leo Eisner is an expert on standards development and sits on many standards committees. He also has experts on additional standards committees and we all talk to the regulators. He has a team of experts to support your needs. Feel free to schedule a call with Leo or contact Leo at Leo@EisnerSafety.com or through our contact form.

We work with many test labs for Medical Electrical Safety & EMC and can arrange other testing, as well. Please let us know if we can help when you contact us.

CANADA

Health Canada has a Consultation: Proposed Changes to the Medical Devices Directorate’s List of Recognized Standards for Medical Devices. I’m surprised they are not updating any of the IEC 60601 based General and Collateral standards to the most recent updates of the summer of 2020 updates. Even the EMC standard IEC 60601-1-2 is still based on the 4.0 edition which is from 2014 and IEC 60601-1 the list references the 3.0 and 3.1 editions 2005 and 2012 respectively.

SAUDI ARABIA

Postponement announcement of the requirements timeline of medical devices unique device identification (Saudi -DI)

MDS-REQ 7 – Requirements for Unique Device Identification (UDI) for Medical Devices Version 4

EU
Questions And Answers On Certificates Of Free Sale And Article 60 Of Regulation (EU) 2017/745 On Medical Devices (MDR) – This document was developed by competent authorities, with the aim of providing guidance in the area of Certificates of Free Sale.
It considers how certificates of free sale should be processed/ generated for ‘old’, ‘legacy’ and MDR compliant devices. It highlights where certificates of free sale can be issued in the context of Article 60 (1) of the Regulation and where the use of national provisions may be required.
The document was endorsed by the CAMD during the 50th plenary meeting held in Paris in June 2022.

MDCG 2022-11 – MDCG Position Paper: Notice to manufacturers to ensure timely compliance with MDR requirements – Places FULL responsibility on manufacturers to complete the transition in time FULL STOP. Don’t expect any extension of the transition period beyond what has been established at this point.

US

Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) of Medical Devices: Final Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff – Issued June 6, 2022, replaces draft of November 17, 2020. NOTE transition period: This document will supersede “Information to Support a Claim of Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) of Electrically-Powered Medical Devices,” issued July 11, 2016, 1 year after the publication of this guidance for in vitro diagnostics and 60 days after the publication of this guidance for other device types (e.g. medical devices including home use devices and active implantables) within the scope of this guidance.

Webinar Recording (June 14, 2022) on Draft Guidance on Cybersecurity in Medical Devices: Quality System Considerations and Content of Premarket Submissions – The webinar focused on the following key subjects:

• Differences between 2018 and 2022 drafts
• General Principles of the guidance
• Design and documentation recommendations
• Transparency and labeling recommendations
• Answered questions

Need help with 60601 series standards (Medical Electrical Equipment) including EMC; strategic planning for your medical electrical product lines; need support when FDA or a regulator asks questions for a submission Eisner Safety Consultants experts deal with EU, US, & other country regulatory requirements & standards, laws, directives, and more. Leo Eisner is an expert on standards development and sits on many standards committees. He also has experts on additional standards committees and we all talk to the regulators. He has a team of experts to support your needs. Feel free to schedule a call with Leo or contact Leo at Leo@EisnerSafety.com or through our contact form.

Regulatory Update – January 2022 Index

I have 4 Regulatory updates (US (2), England, Scotland & Wales (1), EU 1)) for you that are full of great information. Below is a mini index so you can jump around the world as needed – Enjoy and let me hear your feedback on Linked for this post.

1. FDA Updates Recognized Consensus Standards db with List 057
2. FDA Guidance documents Issued – Final and Drafts Recently
3. EC Has Finally Set-Up a Harmonised Standards Website for MDR & IVDR
4. UK Designated Standards for Medical Devices, Active Implants, and IVDs published

FDA Updates Recognized Consensus Standards db with List 057

Read the Federal Register Notice for the modification of list 056 on 9 Dec 2021 to see specifically which standards were withdrawn (you can’t see that detail on the db as withdrawn standards are not shown on the db). The ones that are transitioned and the transition periods are noted but only for the transition period so it is always good to review the Federal Register Notices to understand the full picture in my humble opinion.

Download the table with the list 057 Recognized Consensus Standards for the full list of standards that were updated on this latest update.

Or you can go to the FDA’s Recognized Standards db and search for 12/20/2021 to 12/20/2021 Publication date range to see the 90 standards that are part of the List 057 updates (some are just version changes, some are new standards – See the Federal Register Notice above)

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FDA Guidance documents Issued – Final and Drafts Recently

FDA has been busy with Draft & Final Guidance documents in the last 90 days. I put together a document of some of the more relevant Guidance documents for the medical device industry over the last 90 days. This download includes a Comment column that is a summary of the Guidance (FDA & sometimes my comments added). If the Guidance is a draft I provide the comment link if you would like to send in a comment to the FDA (public or anonymous can be posted), of course the link for the guidance, and more. The Guidances are: 1) Combination Devices (Final), 2) Patient-Reported Outcome Instruments for Use in Medical Device Evaluation, 3) Patient Engagement in the Design and Conduct of Medical Device Clinical Studies, 4) Assessing the Credibility of Computational Modeling and Simulation in Medical Device Submissions, 5) Technical Considerations for Medical Devices with Physiologic Closed-Loop Control Technology, 6) Referencing the Definition of “Device” in the Federal FD&CA in Guidance… 7) Content of Premarket Submissions for Device Software Functions.

Download the

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EC Has Finally Set-Up a Harmonised Standards Website for MDR & IVDR

The European Commission overhauled the sectoral website on Medical Devices in now accessible from the DG SANTE’s Public Health website – a new specific webpage on Harmonized Standards has been set up from the web page “Medical Devices – Topics of Interest”, which has some great topics of interest including Notified Bodies (You can find the NBs for both the MDR & IVDR, the codes they are designated under & more info), UDI (Bountiful resource page), Reprocessing (Well worth reading to understand where the European Commission and each country stands on this issue currently), Latest Updates (separate web page), and more. The Harmonisation web page contains the links to the standardization requests in force and to the publications in the OJEU of references of harmonized standards conferring a presumption of conformity in support of the MDR & the IVDR. The page will gradually grow with more publications, and also with future amendments to the standardization request.

For the latest lists of the MDR & IVDR Harmonized Standards please go to my previous post. Most likely the next update likely to occur March /April 2022.

The above information is thx to Mario Garbielli Cossellu a Policy & Legal Officer at the European Commission provides many great updates on the MDR & IVDR. Check out his recent posts there is always some great content to keep up to date on. I’ve been following him for years on LinkedIn.

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UK Designated Standards for Medical Devices, Active Implants, and IVDs published

The general Designated Standards website covers all categories of products, services or processes to comply with essential requirements of the applicable legislation.

Within that web page there is information on the designation process, reference of designated standards, and then the different industries, product, and processes. Within that list there is a Healthcare engineering section.

The 3 important lists are all controlled by the MHRA. They are:

1. Medical Devices
2. In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices
3. Active Implantable Medical Devices

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Need Help?

Need help with the UK, EU MDR requirements, IEC 60601 (Medical Electrical Equipment), work thru strategic planning for your medical electrical product lines, need support when FDA or a regulator asks questions for a submission Eisner Safety Consultants experts deal with EU, US, & other country regulatory requirements & standards, laws, directives, and more. Leo Eisner is an expert on standards development and sits on many standards committees. He also has experts on additional standards committees and we all talk to the regulators. Feel free to schedule a call with Leo or contact Leo at Leo@EisnerSafety.com or through our contact form.