A good summary article on IEC e-Tech News about the IEC 60601 Series Amendments project that published last summer (2020) the General 60601-1, and Collateral standards (60601-1-XX). Please note that you need to read further comments in some of my articles about IEC 60601-1 for IEC 62368-1 and IEC 60601-1-2 for some additional details. One blog post is an article from InCompliance

I identify which of these standards have major changes when they were published, and discuss some of the changes.

View all the articles I have written for InCompliance Magazine.

I hope you enjoy this article and if you have any questions please feel free to schedule a call with me.

Eisner Safety Consultants has teamed up with greenlight.guru, a specialized electronic Quality Management System (eQMS) platform specifically designed for small to mid-size Medical Device companies. greenlight.guru will reduce your quality management system overhead, a web based system, which is easy and practical to use, will minimize your paper trail, and consequently your need for excessive consultant hours allowing you to focus on your product and getting to market. greenlight.guru and Eisner Safety Consultants are both well equipped with our specialized expertise and know how to get your device to market, and more importantly – STAY in market!

IEC 60601-1 is the gold standard for electrical medical devices around the world. IEC 60601 is a challenge for many companies that are developing electronic medical devices.  It’s wise to have a guide to help you understand and work through the process, and in this podcast I discuss with Jon Speer some guidance you can use.

You need to understand why this standard series is important when developing your electrical medical products for your regulatory submissions. You need to know what they are (join our webinar on the 15 Steps to Get IEC 60601-1 Approval on Dec 13, 2016 to get more details) and understanding how to incorporate them as part of your design and development process at the beginning rather at the end of the process.

Listen Now:

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In the Podcast Leo & Jon discuss:

● What makes the 60601 process different from the other regulatory compliance processes.

● Some of the details on the differences between creating a device for the ER vs. for home use and for use in other types of facilities.

● Tips on preparing for success when creating a timeline for getting through the 60601 process, as well as some of the steps involved.

● Differences between different types of safety labs and the criteria that’s vital to understand to help you make the right choice.

● What to do early in the process of product design and development to be sure you’re on the right track long before you get to the production phase.

● Why it’s vital to keep the 60601 standard in mind, not only when it comes to meeting the standards, but also when it comes to patient safety.

● The Annual Standards Trend Reports (click to get a sample report now & our new pricing) and how you can benefit your company and save money and time.

“Give yourself a buffer. There will be bumps in the road… guaranteed.”  “Some labs know medical very well, and there are a lot that don’t.” – Leo Eisner

A recommendation I tell my clients: When it comes to developing products to the IEC 60601 series of standards is that you need to know your product well enough to determine what standards apply early in the development process – from there you’ll know how much preparation and testing it will take.  If this is something you don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth for we can do it for you.  One tool I recommend for my clients is we can provide you with our Annual Standards Trend Reports (click for a sample report & our new pricing) so you are strategically positioned for the changes that are coming, the new standards in development and for the recently released standards you didn’t even know exist.  View a sample of our Annual Standards Trend Reports & our new pricing.  The Annual Standards Trend Reports can to help you navigate the standards that apply to you and save you a lot of money and time.

About The Global Medical Device Podcast:

The Global Medical Device Podcast powered by greenlight.guru is where today’s brightest minds in the medical device industry go to get their most useful and actionable insider knowledge, direct from some of the world’s leading medical device experts and companies.

Like this episode? Subscribe today on iTunes, Sticher or SoundCloud.

A reminder that FDA Guidances and Recognized Consensus Standards are voluntary.  But I remind my clients’ that if you don’t use these voluntary documents for premarket submissions you make your life and the reviewer’s life a lot harder, typically.  So, I recommend, in most cases, to use these voluntary documents to speed up the process, in the long run.  In the short run, you may need to do more testing but if you don’t you risk the chance of your product not being accepted by the FDA.

The Guidance goes on to say that “the review of EMC information in a submission is based on the risk associated with EMC malfunction or degradation of the device under review, as well as the use of appropriate FDA-recognized standards or appropriate consensus standards.”  The Guidance indicates that manufacturers typically reference in premarket submissions Recognized consesnsus national (US) and international standards such as IEC 60601-1-2²) (3rd or 4th edition) Medical Electrical Equipment EMC standard, device specific Particular Standards such as IEC 60601-2-XX, and lastly they reference other consensus standards for electrically-powered deevices that include information on EMC such as ISO 14708³ for active implantable medical devices.

The Guidance continues with a listing of details that FDA is expecting manufacturer’s provide in their premarket submissions, so the medical device EMC information is clear and consistent information for the submission, and are consistent with the specifications included in the standards, as referenced above, that are applied to the premarket submission.  The Guidance points to the FDA Recognized Consensus Standards database located at http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfStandards/search.cfm.

The rest of the Guidance, Section II “EMC Information”, details the list of items the FDA is expecting of the manufacturer’s for premarket submissions.  And of course the FDA leaves an opening for a broad statement at the end of the section that says: “Additional information not outlined above may be requested by FDA depending on intended use and intended use environment for specific active medical devices (e.g. implantable portions of active devices) to demonstrate the device’s claims regarding electromagnetic compatibility (EMC).”

If you need help with this FDA Draft Guidance or with IEC 60601-1-2 edition 3 or edition 4 or you are interested in our new Eisner Safety Consultants Standards Reconnaissance Database please email Leo Eisner directly at Leo@EisnerSafety.com, or call Leo at +1 (503)-244-6151. He is the Principal Consultant of Eisner Safety Consultants (bit.ly/EisnerSafetyConsultants).

^{Footnotes cited from FDA Draft Guidance Document issued on 2 Nov 2015 titled: “Information to Support a Claim of Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) of Electrically-Powered Medical Devices”}

<sup>1. According to International definitions, “disturbance” is the cause and “interference” is the effect. In the US, “interference” is often used interchangeably for both cause and effect though more often for the cause. 
2. IEC 60601-1-2: 2007 [3rd Ed.]:Medical Electrical Equipment – Part 1-2: General Requirements for Safety – Collateral Standard: Electromagnetic Compatibility – Requirements and Tests, IEC 60601-1-2:2014 [4th Ed.], Medical Electrical Equipment, Part 1 2: General Requirements for Basic Safety and Essential Performance – Collateral Standard: Electromagnetic Disturbances – Requirements and Tests, AAMI/ANSI/IEC 60601-1-2: 2007 [3rd Ed.]:Medical Electrical Equipment – Part 1-2: General Requirements for Safety – Collateral Standard: Electromagnetic Compatibility – Requirements and Tests, and AAMI/ANSI/IEC 60601-1-2: 2014 [4th Ed.]:Medical Electrical Equipment – Part 1-2: General Requirements for Safety – Collateral Standard: Electromagnetic Disturbances – Requirements and Tests 
3. ISO 14708-3 Implants for surgery — Active implantable medical devices — Part 3: Implantable neurostimulators</sup>

This post discusses Health Canada’s most current List of Recognized Standards for Medical Devices effective 31 Aug 2015.

Health Canada updated their list of Recognized Standards for Medical Devices on August 31, 2015.  The changes included additions, updates and removals to the listing.  Part of the update was adding the Canadian National Version of IEC 60601-1, edition 3.1 (or 3rd edition + Amendment 1) which is the Canadian National Standard CAN/CSA C22.2 No. 60601-1:14 (issued in 2014).  It includes some Canadian National Deviations in the standard.  To find out more detail about this standard please refer to a blog post  I wrote back in 2014 on the topic.  The IEC 60601-1:2012-Ed.3.1 was also added to this Listing.

Several other changes of significance to the list of Recognized Standards for Medical Devices include.  This is a partial list of changes so refer to the list for more details:

1. The addition of the previous version of IEC 60601-1-11:2010-Ed. 1.0 Medical electrical equipment – Part 1-11: General requirements for basic safety and essential performance – Collateral Standard: Requirements for medical electrical equipment and medical electrical systems used in the home healthcare environment. For those that subscribe to the Eisner Safety Consultants Standards Reconnaissance Database you would know that the current version of IEC 60601-1-11 was updated in 2015.  This version of the standard is not on the Health Canada List of Recognized Standards for Medical Devices as of yet.
2. The removal of ISO 9919:2005 Medical electrical equipment – Particular requirements for the basic safety and essential performance of pulse oximeter equipment for medical use.  This standard has a replacement which was placed on the list previously which is ISO 80601-2-61:2011-Ed.1.0, Medical electrical equipment – Part 2-61: Particular requirements for basic safety and essential performance of pulse oximeter equipment.  In the Foreword of the ISO 80601-2-61:2011 it says “This first edition of ISO 80601-2-61 cancels and replaces the second edition of ISO 9919:2005, which has been revised to harmonize it with the third edition of IEC 60601-1:2005.” So, the ISO 9919 standard has now been replaced by ISO 80601-2-61.  To find out more details about this standard in regard to the FDA & Health Canada Recognized Standards Lists you may want consider subscribing to the Eisner Safety Consultants Standards Reconnaissance Database.  We provide you with the FDA & Health Canada information about each standard that is in the database.  This way you don’t have to search an extra databases as this information is all in one place for each standard.  
3. The list added another older standard IEC 62366:2007 Medical devices – Application of usability engineering to medical devices.  The more recent version is IEC 62366-1:2015 Medical devices – Part 1: Application of usability engineering to medical devices.  The Foreword of the most recent standard indicates “This first edition of IEC 62366-1, together with the first edition of IEC 62366-2, cancels and replaces the first edition of IEC 62366 published in 2007 and its Amendment 1 (2014).”  The summary of changes noted here is part of the information we provide in each of the current versions of the standards for our paid subscribers for the Eisner Safety Consultants Standards Reconnaissance Database
4. The Canadian and the International versions of IEC 60601-1, 2nd edition have been removed from the list including: CSA C22.2 NO. 601.1 M90 (R2006) Medical electrical equipment – Part 1: General requirements for safety (adopted amendment 2:1995 to IEC 601-1:1990) and IEC 60601-1:1988-Ed.2.0 Medical electrical equipment – Part 1: General requirements for basic safety + IEC 60601-1/Amd.1:1991 + IEC 60601-1/Amd.2:1995 + IEC 60601-1/Cor.1:1995.

These are just some of the changes that are of importance.  The below listings shows the August 31, 2015 Additions, Updates, and Removals to the Health Canada List of Recognized Standards for Medical Devices.  When there are updates to Regulatory Lists of Standards we will update the Eisner Safety Consultants Standards Reconnaissance Database listing as soon as possible so you are kept up to date on the changes to the standards of that specific Regulator. Currently we are monintoring the list of standards for FDA & Health Canada.  In the near future we will be adding in the European List of Harmonized Standards to this monitoring process.

Below are the 3 parts of the Health Canada list that have changed:

The Additions to the list of Recognized Standards include the following:

• ISO 5840-3:2013 Cardiovascular implants — Cardiac valve prostheses — Part 3: Heart valve substitutes implanted by transcatheter techniques
• ISO 14117:2012-Ed.1.0 Active implantable medical devices – Electromagnetic compatibility – EMC test protocols for implantable cardiac pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization devices
• IEC 60601-1:2012-Ed.3.1 Medical electrical equipment – Part 1: General requirements for basic safety and essential performance
• CAN/CSA-C22.2 NO. 60601-1:14 Medical electrical equipment – Part 1: General requirements for basic safety and essential performance
• IEC 60601-1-11:2010-Ed. 1.0 Medical electrical equipment – Part 1-11: General requirements for basic safety and essential performance – Collateral Standard: Requirements for medical electrical equipment and medical electrical systems used in the home healthcare environment
• IEC 60601-2-57:2011-Ed.1.0 Medical electrical equipment – Part 2-57: Particular requirements for the basic safety and essential performance of non-laser light source equipment intended for therapeutic, diagnostic, monitoring and cosmetic/aesthetic use
• IEC 62366:2007 Medical devices – Application of usability engineering to medical devices
• ISO 13408-1:2008 Aseptic processing of health care products – Part 1: General requirements
• ISO 13408-2:2003 Aseptic processing of health care products – Part 2: Filtration
• ISO 13408-3:2006 Aseptic processing of health care products – Part 3: Lyophilization
• ISO 13408-4:2005 Aseptic processing of health care products – Part 4: Clean-in-place technologies
• ISO 13408-5:2006 Aseptic processing of health care products – Part 5: Sterilization in place
• ISO 13408-6:2005 Aseptic processing of health care products – Part 6: Isolator systems
• ISO 13408-7:2012 Aseptic processing of health care products – Part 7: Alternative processes for medical devices and combination products
• ISO 14644-1:1999 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments – Part 1: Classification of air cleanliness
• ISO 14644-2:2000 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments – Part 2: Specifications for testing and monitoring to prove continued compliance with ISO 14644-1
• ISO 14644-3:2005 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments – Part 3: Test methods
• ISO 14644-4:2001 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments – Part 4: Design, construction and start-up
• ISO 14644-5:2004 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments – Part 5: Operations
• ISO 14644-6:2007 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments – Part 6: Vocabulary
• ISO 14644-7:2004 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments – Part 7: Separative devices (clean air hoods, glove boxes, isolators and mini-environments)
• ISO 14644-8:2012 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments – Part 8: Classification of air cleanliness by chemical concentration (ACC)
• ISO 14644-9:2012 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments – Part 9: Classification of surface cleanliness by particle concentration
• ISO 14644-10:2013 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments – Part 10: Classification of surface cleanliness by chemical concentration
• ISO 14698-1:2003 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments – Biocontamination control – Part 1: General principles and methods
• ISO 14698-2:2003 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments – Biocontamination control – Part 2: Evaluation and interpretation of biocontamination data
• ASTM F2028-14 Standard Test Methods for Dynamic Evaluation of Glenoid Loosening or Disassociation

The Updates to the list of Recognized Standards include the following:

• ISO 14708-2:2012 Implants for surgery – Active implantable medical devices – Part 2: Cardiac pacemakers
• IEC 60601-2-24:2012-Ed.2.0 Medical electrical equipment – Part 2-24: Particular requirements for the basic safety and essential performance of infusion pumps and controllers
  Note: Additional accuracy testing results for flow rates below 1 mL/h may be required depending on the pump’s intended use
• IEC 60825-1:2014-Ed.3.0 Safety of laser products – Part 1: Equipment classification and requirements
• CSA Z900.1-12 Cells tissues, and organs for transplantation: General requirements
• ASTM F1160-14 Standard Test Method for Shear and Bending Fatigue Testing of Calcium Phosphate and Metallic Medical and Composite Calcium Phosphate/Metallic Coatings
• ASTM F1377-13 Standard Specification for Cobalt-28Chromium-6Molybdenum Powder for Coating of Orthopedic Implants (UNS R30075)
• ASTM F1717-14 Standard Test Methods for Spinal Implant Constructs in a Vertebrectomy Model
• ASTM F1798-13 Standard Test Method for Evaluating the Static and Fatigue Properties of Interconnection Mechanisms and Subassemblies Used in Spinal Arthrodesis Implants
• ASTM F2943-14 Standard Guide for Presentation of End User Labeling Information for Musculoskeletal Implants

The Removals to the list of Recognized Standards include the following:

• ISO 9919:2005 Medical electrical equipment – Particular requirements for the basic safety and essential performance of pulse oximeter equipment for medical use
• ISO 21647:2004 Medical electrical equipment – Particular requirements for the basic safety and essential performance of respiratory gas monitors
  ISO 21647/Cor.1:2005
• ANSI/AAMI DF80:2003 Medical electrical equipment – Part 2-4: Particular requirements for the safety of cardiac defibrillators (including automated external defibrillators)
• ANSI/AAMI PC69:2000 Active implantable medical devices – Electromagnetic compatibility – EMC test protocols for implantable cardiac pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators
• ANSI/AAMI PC69:2007 Active implantable medical devices – Electromagnetic compatibility – EMC test protocols for implantable cardiac pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators
  ANSI/AAMI PC69/ERTA:2008
• CSA C22.2 NO. 601.1 M90 (R2006)
  Medical electrical equipment – Part 1: General requirements for safety (adopted amendment 2:1995 to IEC 601-1:1990)
• CSA C22.2 NO. 60601-1-2A-03 (R2006)
  Medical electrical equipment – Part 1-2: General requirements for safety – Collateral standard: Electromagnetic compatibility – Requirements and tests (Adopted Amendment 1:2004 to IEC 60601-1-2:2001)
• IEC 60601-1:1988-Ed.2.0
  Medical electrical equipment – Part 1: General requirements for basic safety
  IEC 60601-1/Amd.1:1991
  IEC 60601-1/Amd.2:1995
  IEC 60601-1/Cor.1:1995
• IEC 60601-1-2:2004-Ed.2.1
  Medical electrical equipment – Part 1-2: General requirements for safety – Collateral standard – Electromagnetic compatibility – Requirements and tests
• IEC 60601-1-4:2000-Ed.1.1
  Medical electrical equipment – Part 1-4: General requirements for safety – Collateral standard: Programmable electrical medical systems
• IEC 60601-1-6:2006-Ed.2.0
  Medical electrical equipment – Part 1-6: General requirements for basic safety and essential performance – Collateral Standard: Usability
• IEC 60601-2-10:1987-Ed.1.0
  Medical electrical equipment – Part 2-10: Particular requirements for the safety of nerve and muscle stimulators
  IEC 60601-2-10/Cor.1:1987
  IEC 60601-2-10/Amd.1:2001
• IEC 60601-2-25:1993-Ed.1.0
  Medical electrical equipment – Part 2-25: Particular requirements for the safety of electrocardiographs
  IEC 60601-2-25/Amd.1:1999
• IEC 60601-2-26:2002-Ed.2.0
  Medical electrical equipment – Part 2-26: Particular requirements for the safety of electroencephalographs
• IEC 60601-2-36:1997-Ed.1.0
  Medical electrical equipment – Part 2: Particular requirements for the safety of equipment for extracorporeally induced lithotripsy
• IEC 60601-2-47:2001-Ed.1.0
  Medical electrical equipment – Part 2-47: Particular requirements for the safety, including essential performance, of ambulatory electrocardiographic systems
• IEC 60601-2-51:2003-Ed.1.0
  Medical electrical equipment – Part 2-51: Particular requirements for safety, including essential performance, of recording and analysing single channel and multichannel electrocardiographs

If you need help withCAN/CSA C22.2 No. 60601-1:14 or IEC 60601-1, 3rd edition or edition 3.1 or you are interested in the Eisner Safety Consultants Standards Reconnaissance Database please email Leo Eisner directly at Leo@EisnerSafety.com, or call Leo at +1 (503)-244-6151. He is the Principal Consultant of Eisner Safety Consultants (bit.ly/EisnerSafetyConsultants).

Compliance to standards has become a key part of regulatory requirements. Due to move towards Global Harmonization of regulations, it has become important not only for the developed markets of US, EU, etc. but also the emerging markets (e.g. China, Brazil, etc.)

Our new service helps you identify the required standards and editions for your intended markets.                                                                   

Our service helps medical electrical device manufacturers (our specific focus of our database) keep up to date on new standards, updates to existing standards, and draft standards under development. This assures you can plan ahead of any major changes.

We reduce your burden on this time consuming task, so you can focus on what you are good at – developing products.

We do this at very reasonable rates.  We are offering to early adopters an extra discount on the price and extra time (3 months) will be added to the first year subscription. 

See our demo page for the types of reports we generate for the service. Find out more about the service.

We decided to take a little extra time to capture the large amount of information involved.. We will be Live by Mid Oct 2015.

Sign-up now for a live release notification and you will receive a special limited time offer that no one else will receive after we go live!! If you would also like to receive our Eisner Safety Consultants Newsletter sign-up here. Also, early adopters get an extra discount on the price and will get an additional 3 months added to their first year subscription if you sign-up in time.

What does the Service Provide:

The service includes several databases:

1. The Standards database is the primary focus. It includes standards, technical reports, technical specifications and guides. It includes new documents, updates to existing documents, as well as drafts under development (e.g. New Work Proposals, Committee Drafts, etc.)
2. List of standards publishers and the associated country.
3. List of Medical Device Regulators and their websites (if available).
4. Guidance Documents related to the standards for key markets. [Coming Soon]

A periodic report** is provided as part of the service.

All paid subscribers will have the ability to:

• Run searches of subscribed databases
• Print out search results from displayed data
• Print out tables of results in tabular format
• Export data for generation of your own reports (based on terms of service)
• Multiple user log-in for your company (limited to 5 unique user log-ins)

Discount for Initial release: We are releasing the database in stages, the early adopters (Current stage – stage 1) will get a discount (20%) for the first annual subscription cycle and an additional 3 months added to their subscription if you sign-up in time.

Sign-up now to receive a live release notification and you will receive a special limited time offer that no one else will receive after we go live!! If you would also like to receive our Eisner Safety Consultants Newsletter sign-up here.

Stage 2 will add Guidance Documents for the US, Canada, and EU. Also, list of standards publishers and the associated country will be expanded to cover 50+ countries. Stage 2 will be released by early 2016.

Stage 3 will expand the standards database to include US, EU, and Canadian versions of the IEC standards & IEC/ISO joint documents. It will also expand the regulators information and their websites beyond the key markets. Stage 3 will be released early Spring 2016.

Stage 4 will expand the standards database to include the supporting (non-electrical) medical standards used for your regulatory submissions e.g. ISO 10993 series, ISO 15223-1, etc. Stage 4 will be released early Fall 2016.

View details on the Subscription Levels

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. I can be reached by e-mail or phone at Leo@EisnerSafety.com and 503-244-6151 (Office) and 503-709-8328 (Cell).

Just Published on 23 Sept 2015 the Australian / New Zealand Joint Standard AS/NZS IEC 60601.1:2015 which is based on the complete IEC 60601-1, edition 3.1:2012 (identical).  The only differences are in the AS/NZS IEC 60601-1:2015 the preface states to a) replace the international standards references with references to Australian or Australian / New Zealand Standards, b) replace in the source text ‘this international standard’ by ‘this Australian/New Zeland Standard’, c) a full point substitues for a comma when refeering to a decimal marker.

If you need help with AS/NZS IEC 60601-1:2015 or IEC 60601-1, 3rd edition or edition 3.1 please email Leo Eisner directly at Leo@EisnerSafety.com, or call Leo at +1-(503)-244-6151. He is the Principal Consultant of Eisner Safety Consultants (bit.ly/EisnerSafetyConsultants).

Does your Medical Device Regulator or your Quality System require that you maintain a list of applicable standards to meet these requirements for your product lines?  How much time does it take to put this list together and how much effort does it take to keep the list updated? If this is a struggle for your organization to keep up with all the different data sources we have the solution for you at a reasonable price. A Standards Reconnaissance Subscription Service to help medical electrical device manufacturers keep up to date on all the changes that occur for these documents so you are prepared for future changes well ahead of the norm and you are able to stay up to date on your list of standards. The focus of this service will be on the documents for medical electrical equipment & systems (MEE&S = IEC TC 62, SC 62A – 62D) and home use medical electrical equipment & systems (Home Use MEE&S = IEC Active Assisted Living System Committee (IEC AAL SyC) and any other Home Use medical electrical equipment documents from the IEC TC 62, SC 62A – 62D including IEC 60601-1-11 Home Use Environment).

We plan to go live with the db by the end of Sept 2015.

Please reserve your spot by September 28, 2015 for this db subscription service.

Some of the features will include [For Paid Subscribers unless noted otherwise]:

• Notification e-mails when changes occur (i.e. Change in transition information from FDA for a standard) and new records are entered into the db.
• Receive either 2 or 4 reports per year (depending on Subscription level) summarizing:
  • key issues of that report cycle for MEE&S or home Use MEE&S,
  • estimated timeline for the publication of draft standards & other relevant documents of significance, and
  • full listing of all the documents in your part of the db with status information.
• Access to our searchable db (depending on Subscription level access to the either the MEE&S or Home Use MEE&S part of the db or the whole db) on our dedicated db website if you are a paid subscriber. [Limited access for free level of service with 10 – 15 standards (pre-defined)]
• Print out db search results the way you want them
• Export db search results for your use (limited by the terms & conditions of the db)

There are several parts of this db [For Paid Subscribers unless noted otherwise]:

• Standards db – including information on the standards, technical reports, technical specifications, and publicly available specifications that are active or current, in draft or development which would include voting level documents such as New Work Proposals, Committee Drafts, etc., and withdrawn documents (The previous version of the active standard).
• List of standards publishers & associated country (this will cover 50+ countries) [includes free service level],
• List of Medical Device Regulators with their websites, if available, for a selection of countries including all the of EU & EFTA countries.  We plan to expand this to include all countries in the world by the end of Stage 2 (below),
• Guidance Documents – Guidance documents that the regulatory bodies use for their national regulatory systems. Like for the US, Canada, & Europe. They will be added sometime after going live by end of stage 2 or 3 (see below).

Once the db goes live you can check out how the db works by accessing the free level of service to view a few examples of current standards (about 10 to 15). With the free service level you will be able to use most of the db features set other than obtaining reports, the update notification service, but you will not have access to List of Medical Device Regulators db of Guidance documents db.

Pricing starts at only:

• $4,500/year for Base Entry Subscription (2 reports per year and select either MEE&S or Home Use MEE&S part of db),
• $6,500/year for Mid-Level Subscription (4 reports per year and full access to db), or
• $9,000/year & up for Premium Subscription (2 personalized reports for your company’s needs based on conversations with Leo Eisner, 2 reports per year from the Premium Subscription level, and full access to db)
  All payments to be paid in US$ only.

We plan to go live with the db by the end of Sept 2015. Since we will be releasing the db in stages the early adopters will get a discount (20%) for the first annual subscription cycle and additionally we will throw in extra months to your subscription commensurate with how early you subscribe.  The earlier you subscribe the more free months will be added to your first yearly subscription for no additional charge.

Please reserve your spot by September 28, 2015 for this db subscription service and to guarantee a discounted first year price and to obtain extra months added for free. To reserve your spot for the Base entry or the Mid-Level Subscriptions please arrange a $750.00 (US$) deposit and for the Premium Subscriptions please arrange a $1,500.00 (US$) deposit. Contact us to arrange for deposit.

There will be a couple stages for the release of information for the db.  We plan on continual updates over time to provide a really valuable resource and continually make it better. The first stage will be complete prior to the official release of the db which will include all the updated information for the IEC based MEE&S & Home Use MEE&S documents including updates on the small number of joint IEC/ISO documents.  Stage 2 will be initiated just before the release of the db, which will include updates for the US, EU, and Canadian versions of the IEC & IEC/ISO MEE&S and Home Use MEE&S documents and IEC/ISO joint documents. We plan to have stage 2 completed around Jan 2016.  Stage 3 will include updated information adding in the supporting medical device (non-medical-electrical) documents you need for your regulatory submissions such as ISO 10993 series of standards, ISO 15223-1, etc.  This stage will initiate with the non-medical-electrical standards for IEC and ISO and in the future we will add other Standards Developers.  We expect to start on stage 3 around Jan 2016 and have not yet scheduled it’s completion.

Please contact Leo Eisner to find out more details about this db. He can be reached by e-mail or phone at Leo@EisnerSafety.com and 503-244-6151 (Office) and 503-709-8328 (Cell).

11 June 2015 – Scrip Regulatory Affairs – Article written by Leo Eisner titled “Everything you needed to know about who’s doing what where with IEC 60601-1 – Part 1” Article discusses how the standard (IEC 60601-1 3rd ed. or ed. 3.1) is being used by Regulatory & Standards Organizations for the USA and Canada.

To read this article please go to Featured Articles webpage. Thank you Scrip Regulatory Affairs for allowing us to post on our Featured Articles Page of our Website.  This is not for public distribution please refer your associates that you want to read the article directly to the Featured Articles webpage.

We are in the process of setting up a standards reconnaissance service where we monitor the MEDICAL ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT and HOME USE MEDICAL ELECTRICAL standards of your choice.  If you are interested in this service please contact Leo Eisner at Leo@EisnerSafety.com or 503-244-6151.  We would be happy to discuss what we can do for your organization as Leo is on many of the standards committees that these standards are involved with.  Below is a summary of my involvement in these committees.

Leo is a co-chair of the U.S. TAG (technical advisory group) for IEC/SC 62D, a member of the US TAG for TC 62 (Electrical Equipment in Medical Practice), SC 62A (Common Aspects of Electrical Equipment Used in Medical Practice) and SC 62D (Electromedical equipment).  He is the convener of SC62D JWG9 “Lens removal and vitrectomy devices for ophthalmic surgery”.  Leo is a member of the TC 62/SC 62A/WG 14 (Testing to General Safety Standard – The Working Group is chartered to develop recommendations regarding interpretation & application of IEC 60601-1 to testing of medical electrical equipment, and to deal with general testing requirements not assigned to other maintenance teams.)  To support the increase in demand for medical device Home Use and Wearables Leo is a member of the AAMI committee for Home Use Medical Devices and the US TAG for Active Assisted Living Syc (System Committee for all devices in various categories for the elderly which includes the home use medical device industry).

IEC TR 60601-4-3:2015 Guidance & interpretation of IEC 60601-1, 3^rd ed. Published

This post discusses the recently published Guidance IEC TR 60601-4-3:2015 that issues interpretations of IEC 60601-1, 3rd ed. and edition 3.1.

The technical report tiled IEC TR 60601-4-3:2015 Guidance & interpretation – Considerations of unaddressed safety aspects in the 3^rd ed of IEC 60601-1 & proposal for new requirements was released April 2015.  It deals with recommendations and interpretations of the IEC 60601-1, 3^rd ed. and edition 3.1 (or 3^rd ed. + A1).  IEC Subcommittee (SC) 62A established a process under which Working Group (WG) 14 would develop recommendations regarding problems of interpretation or application of IEC 60601-1.  I am a member of this WG.  Many of the WG14 experts are employed by test laboratories and manufacturers and have many years experience applying IEC 60601-1 to MEDICAL ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT.  The one thing to be crystal clear about is in the INTRODUCTION of the document it says:

“While the National Committee members of SC 62A nominate these experts, their recommendations were not to be formally adopted through any official voting procedure. To reinforce this process, the Subcommittee specifically directed that the following note appear on every page of the resulting informational circular:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Per the 62A decision at Sydney…, the 62A Secretary is circulating this recommendation,…regarding problems of interpretation or application of IEC 60601-1 to all P-Member NCs.

This recommendation/interpretation is the result of considerations by a group of nominated experts and has not been formally adopted through any National Committee voting procedure. Distribution is only for information.

The INTRODUCTION of this Technical Report goes on to say:

“This technical report is intended to convey the results of WG 14’s work to interested parties such as MANUFACTURERS and test laboratories while retaining the informative nature of the material.

This first edition of IEC TR 60601-4-3 contains 93 recommendations, numbered 101 to 193. All these recommendations are based upon IEC 60601-1:2005 and IEC 60601-1:2005/AMD1:2012.

The numbering starts with 101 instead of just 1 to ensure that these WG 14 recommendations (101 to 193) will not accidentally be confused with previous issued WG 14 recommendations 1 to 63, which are based on the second edition of IEC 60601-1 and published in IEC TR 62296.”

The other purpose of this document is that these recommendations may be potential sources for some of the changes to the IEC 60601-1 standard when it is up for it’s next round of changes.  The standards committees, working groups, and maintenance committees for IEC 60601-1 and it’s collateral standards (IEC 60601-1-XX) are in discussion if the next revision will start late this year or early next year.  There is a meeting of all the TC 62 (& SC62A – D) committees in Kobe Japan in Nov 2015 that will discuss this and probably have a formal vote to decide on the fate of the next revision of IEC 60601-1.  I plan to be at these meetings and involved in the discussions and decisions. If this vote is positive the earliest the changes would occur is sometime in 2019.  Stay tuned for more updates on the potential changes to the IEC 60601-1 standards and it’s related collateral standards.

As there are 93 recommendations sheets I will not note all of them in the below list but a sampling showing a cross section of the ones that draw my attention.  You can see from the list below that many of these were not addressed fully in the standard and this is the start of the resolution to these issues. Many of test houses use this document as their interpretations that they rely on until these decisions are finalized by being adopted into the next revision of the applicable standard (primarily IEC 60601-1).  But realize as the boxed text says these are not formalized so your test lab may not rely on them.  I would suggest that you check first with your Test Lab on the specific issues before assuming they are their interpretations.  You don’t want to use these and find out at the end of your test project that your lab doesn’t agree to the perspective on one or more of these recommendation sheets.  I would hate to see you redesign a product to find out the solution doesn’t meet the requirements for your lab.  As mentioned many labs do accept these but with added text box please be diligent and check first:

3.2.101             Total PATIENT LEAKAGE CURRENT of a ME SYSTEM

3.2.102             Pollution degree for MOPP

3.2.103             Transients on d.c. mains

3.2.104             Altitude factor for DEFIBRILLATION-PROOF APPLIED PARTS

3.2.105             Defibrillation energy protection for MOOP / MOPP

3.2.106             Overvoltage categories III and IV

3.2.107             Pollution degree related to different micro/macro environments

3.2.108             Warnings versus ALARM SIGNALS

3.2.109             Single Y1 capacitor for MOPP

3.2.111             CREEPAGE DISTANCE and AIR CLEARANCE for dental equipment

3.2.112             Short circuiting of one constituent part of DOUBLE INSULATION

3.2.113             Instability in transport position

3.2.116             Instability excluding transport position

3.2.119             Test equipment for recurrent tests according to IEC 62353 testing used within IEC 60601-1 type approval testing

3.2.124             WORKING VOLTAGE measurement

3.2.125             Defibrillation test

3.2.127             PERMANENTLY INSTALLED ME EQUIPMENT in the HOME HEALTHCARE ENVIRONMENT

3.2.129             Push buttons

3.2.132             Eye-verification of tester before legibility test

3.2.125             Labeling: spare parts vs. detachable parts vs. ACCESSORIES

3.2.144             Impedance of a PROTECTIVE EARTH CONDUCTOR within a DETACHABLE POWER SUPPLY CORD

3.2.149             Expected voltage on SIP/SOPs

3.2.151             COMPONENT WITH HIGH-INTEGRITY CHARACTERISTICS

3.2.153             Critical components

3.2.166             Keep dry and umbrella symbol

3.2.167             MOBILE and STATIONARY ME EQUIPMENT with wheels

3.2.175             Biocompatibility for quasi APPLIED PARTS

3.2.182             Chargers for ME EQUIPMENT used at home

3.2.186             Rationale for IP2X

3.2.187             Battery – limited power

3.2.191             The SIP/SOP pin to earth TOUCH CURRENT

3.2.193             MAINS VOLTAGE on APPLIED PART

This is a great resource to have throughout your design process and through the testing and beyond.  Always have it available so you can leverage the knowledge of these WG14 experts, including myself.  You can purchase this document from IEC, AAMI, and many other sources.  Go to http://www.eisnersafety.com/links/ to find a listing of standards Sales Organizations and also Standards Organizations.

We are in the process of setting up a standards reconnaissance service where we monitor the MEDICAL ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT and HOME USE MEDICAL ELECTRICAL standards of your choice.  If you are interested in this service please contact Leo Eisner at Leo@EisnerSafety.com or 503-244-6151.  We would be happy to discuss what we can do for your organization as Leo is on many of the standards committees that these standards are involved with.  Below is a summary of my involvement in these committees.

Leo is a co-chair of the U.S. TAG (technical advisory group) for IEC/SC 62D, a member of the US TAG for TC 62 (Electrical Equipment in Medical Practice), SC 62A (Common Aspects of Electrical Equipment Used in Medical Practice) and SC 62D (Electromedical equipment).  He is the convener of SC62D JWG9 “Lens removal and vitrectomy devices for ophthalmic surgery”.  Leo is a member of the TC 62/SC 62A/WG 14 (Testing to General Safety Standard – The Working Group is chartered to develop recommendations regarding interpretation & application of IEC 60601-1 to testing of medical electrical equipment, and to deal with general testing requirements not assigned to other maintenance teams.)  To support the increase in demand for medical device Home Use and Wearables Leo is a member of the AAMI committee for Home Use Medical Devices and the US TAG for Active Assisted Living Syc (System Committee for all devices in various categories for the elderly which includes the home use medical device industry).