Blog

The West Australian reported that two autonomous haulage systems (AHS) trucks experienced a collision when one of the trucks backed into the cab of the second truck that was stationary at the time.  This is of interest to us as the AHS trucks are software controlled and they crashed.  Clearly a failure mode.  The initial report is...Read More

FDA issued a Safety Communication on January 31, 2019, (see Safety Communication Link) warning of the risk of air being introduced in a blood vessel (air-in-line) and air embolism for infusion pumps, fluid warmers, rapid infusers, and accessory devices.  This communication is directed toward users (both clinical and service personnel) and patients.  However, what can system architects,...Read More

Health Canada has recently provided a new approach for device approval as outlined in their “Action Plan on Medical Devices: Continuously Improving Safety, Effectiveness and Quality.” Canada classifies medical devices based on their potential risk, with Class I devices being lowest-risk and Class IV devices presenting the highest risk. The collaborative new approach aims to...Read More

The Verily Study Watch is a device worn on the wrist that digitizes patient physiologic measurements and processes the raw data through algorithms both on the wrist worn device and additional processing when communicated to cloud based computing systems.  The idea is that the Verily watch would be worn similar (or as!) a consumer device...Read More

This content is only available to Standards Navigator subscribers.  See our Subscribe page for information on subscriptions. Standards and regulatory activity overview Medical device software It appears that in response to a question posed by the IEC 62304 working group, the ISO and IEC member countries want ISO 14971 to be required for use of the second...Read More

Clearly one of the great struggles with medical device product design is to understand and finely tune the design input for our devices.  It is difficult but the payoff can be great when done well – pays off with development efficiency, greater certainty with safety risk control, and ultimately in customer satisfaction. In our training...Read More

It is always good to remind ourselves of exactly what the regulation says – often our corporate procedures can become “bloated” and lead some to believe that some specific activities and/or types of deliverables are required by the regulations.Read More

One of the most difficult challenges for medical device and HealthIT manufacturers is to properly "level" the design requirements for their medical device systems such that it is clear when it comes to design validation versus design verification.Read More

Certainly everyone with any connection to information technology and networked devices is concerned with cybersecurity. However, often we just miss the basics – we do not practice good cyber hygiene. While not intended to be comprehensive or state-of-the-art, here are some security basics (or as some call it, “cyber hygiene”) that one should consider when developing...Read More

Glanced through the latest FDA warning letters today.  From the FDA Medical Device & Radiological Health Operations West/Division 3 I see the inspector pointing out “This design validation also fails to include software validation [emphasis mine] to assure software will perform as intended and will not prevent safe operation by the user.”   Of course this is...Read More