COMMISSION IMPLEMENTATION DECISION M/575 was issued 14 April 2021: This is a list of standards the EU Commission is hoping to Harmonize under MDR and IVDR.  One of the issues is the HAS consultant has issued a negative assessment on EN ISO 14971 which the CEN/CLC JTC3 leadership is working with the HAS consultant to address the issues and to draft acceptable European annexes so Harmonization can occur for the standard.  Many of the standards on the list in M/575 reference to EN ISO 14971 so it is highly likely that CEN and CENELEC will reject this newest version of the EU Commission Standardization Request again and we won’t have any Harmonized Standards by the Date of Application (26 May 2021) for the MDR which will cause lots of problems for manufacturers and Notified Bodies and cause more delays for the MDR & likely even for the IVDR I’m sorry to say.  Also, the MDCG 2021-5 “Guidance on standardisation for medical devices” doesn’t seem to clarify when harmonized standards are not published through the Offical Journal of the EU what to do.  In section 3.1 mentions Harmonized standards are voluntary with respect to the MDR & IVDR as they were for the MDD, AIMDD, & IVDD.  The closest the MDCG gets to it is to use the “State of Art” standards approach in section 3.5.

Another important observation is all the newest versions of the General & Collateral IEC 60601 Standards that were issued Summer of 2020 (EN versions were issued later in the year) are listed in Annex I of the EU Commission Standardization Request as the deadline to adopt these standards by 27 May 2024 — These are EN 60601-1, ed. 3.2; EN 60601-1-2, ed. 4.1; EN 60601-1-3, ed. 2.2; EN 60601-1-6, ed. 3.2; EN 60601-1-8, ed. 2.2; EN 60601-1-9, ed. 1.2; EN 60601-1-10, ed. 1.2; EN 60601-1-11, ed. 2.1; & EN 60601-1-12, ed. 1.1 – The Particular Standards EN 60601-2-XX or EN ISO 80601-2-XX listed are primarily based on the previous versions of the General & Collaterals of IEC 60601 standards on the M/575 list so this will likely cause conflicts vs the listed new standards mentioned here.

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Confused this is what Eisner Safety Consultants experts deal with all the time for countries for these and many other standards, regulations, laws, directives, and more. Leo Eisner is an expert on standards development and sit on many standards committees. Let us help you through this process. Need help with Essential Performance. Feel free to schedule a call with Leo www.EisnerSafety.com/Schedule-Call/ or contact Leo at Leo@EisnerSafety.com or through our contact form at https://eisnersafety.com/contact_eisner_safety/.

Notified bodies can now do remote audits for the MDR and IVDR — Member states need to Notify the EU Commission of Notified Bodies not conducting on-site audits & the period of time this will not be happening. So remote audits for these NBs won’t be happening immediately – but this is a big change! EUR-Lex – 52021XC0111(01) – EN – EUR-Lex Each Competent Authority will need to review each separate NB’s justifications and procedures separately and this is a COVID-19 exemption only so this is temporary. Once the Commission says COVID-19 crisis is over this goes away.

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To sign up for this Zoom conversation click here. This Zoom Conversation is being hosted by Rob Packard of Medical Device Academy.

Learn about some of the major changes from the IEC 60601 Amendments coming during this Zoom conversation. Read the below infographic to get an understanding of which standards are being updated, when the updates are estimated, how long the proposed transition period is, what are some of the concerns to consider, and what ways can we help you prepare and train your staff up for these changes.

As a Senior Contributor to InCompliance, many years I am asked to update my articles to be placed in the Annual Guide but rarely do 2 of my articles show up in the Guide in a year. This year 2 of my popular articles have worked there way into the annual guide.

THE EU’S MEDICAL DEVICE REGULATION (EU) 2017/745 – ARE YOU READY FOR HUGE SWEEPING CHANGES?

The article now starts off with “Less than 3 Months Left to Implement the EU MDR“. The article was originally written on June 28, 2019, and updated on February 1, 2020.

THE FUTURE OF THE IEC 60601 SERIES: AN UPDATE

“I have been writing and talking about the IEC 60601 series of standards for a very long time, but I have presented on this subject more often in the last couple of years since there is so much changing on a regular basis.” The article was originally written on October 31, 2019, and updated on February 1, 2020.