Health Canada is adopting the Global Medical Device Nomenclature (GMDN) system to improve availability, access, and information quality. The decision is in line with the recommendation of the International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF).

and supports the Federal Government’s Open Government initiative by improving the quality of medical devices data available to the public and leading to greater transparency.

GMDN is a list of generic names used to identify medical device products, allowing for efficient and timely information exchange between jurisdictions and effective monitoring by regulators. The GMDN database currently includes over 23,000 active terms covering all major technologies and intended uses.

By May 2018, Health Canada will provide manufacturers with a list of their medical devices associated with active medical device licenses. Manufacturers will be invited to determine the GMDN code for each device. Health Canada is also updating the medical device license application and license amendment forms. Once these forms are available, applicants will be asked to provide the GMDN data as part of all new applications and license amendment applications.

The announcement is available from https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-health-products/medical-devices/activities/announcements/notice-global-medical-device-nomenclature.html

The Ombu Library, in the Corrections and Removals aisle, has an article that describes the regulation and summarizes the reporting exceptions.

On January 18, 2018 IMDRF published GRRP WG(PD1)/N47 Essential Principles of Safety and Performance of 19 Medical Devices and IVD Medical Devices.

The IMDRF Good Regulatory Review Practices group published the draft guidance as part of an IMDRF consultation.

The document’s intention is to help harmonize documentation and procedures to assess whether a medical device conforms to the regulations that apply in each jurisdiction.

The document’s content is:

Introduction
• 1.0 Scope
• 2.0 References
• 3.0 Definitions
• 4.0 Safety and Performance of Medical Devices – General Principles
• 5.0 Essential Principles Applicable to all Medical Devices and IVD Medical Devices
• 6.0 Essential Principles Applicable to Medical Devices other than IVD Medical Devices
• 7.0 Essential Principles Applicable to IVD Medical Devices
• Annex A: Use of Standards in Meeting Essential Principles
• Annex B: Guidance on Essential Principles

Download the document at http://www.imdrf.org/docs/imdrf/final/consultations/imdrf-cons-epsp-n47.pdf

The Competent Authorities for Medical Devices, CAMD, Implementation Taskforce published the Medical Devices Regulation/In-vitro Diagnostics Regulation (MDR/IVDR) Roadmap. You can download the roadmap from https://www.camd-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NEWS_171107_MDR-IVDR_RoadMap_v1.3-1.pdf

The contents include:

• Clinical Evaluation & Clinical Investigation (MD)
• Performance Evaluation & Performance Studies (IVD)
• Scope & Classification
• Notified Bodies & Conformity Assessment
• Post-Market Surveillance & Vigilance for both MD and IVD
• Eudamed & UDI
• Market Surveillance
• IVD-specific Issues
• Over-arching & Cross-cutting Priorities

In addition, there are two documents that include frequently asked questions.

For the EU-MDR, go to https://www.camd-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/FAQ_MDR_180117_V1.0-1.pdf

For the EU-IVDR go to https://www.camd-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/FAQ_IVDR_180117_V1.0-1.pdf

The Food and Drug Administration Reauthorization Act of 2017 (FDARA), Section 710 requires FDA to report on the continued quality, safety, and effectiveness of medical device servicing. In this case, servicing includes refurbishing, reconditioning, rebuilding, remarketing, repairing, remanufacturing, or other servicing of the device.

On May 18, 2018, FDA issued Report on the Quality, Safety, and Effectiveness of Servicing of Medical Devices.

https://www.fda.gov/downloads/RegulatoryInformation/LawsEnforcedbyFDA/SignificantAmendmentstotheFDCAct/FDARA/UCM607469.pdf

The report concludes that available objective evidence is not sufficient to support a widespread public health concern related to servicing of medical devices that would justify imposing additional/different burdensome regulatory requirements. FDA intends to pursue the following actions:

1. Promote the Adoption of Quality Management Principles;
2. Clarify the Difference Between Servicing and Remanufacturing;
3. Strengthen Cybersecurity Practices Associated with Servicing of Medical Devices; and
4. Foster Evidence Development to Assess the Quality, Safety, and Effectiveness of Medical Devices

On April 6, 2018, FDA updated codes for MDR reporting. The updated code hierarchies are: Device Problem Code, Manufacturer Evaluation Method Code, Manufacturer Evaluation Result Code, and Manufacturer Evaluation Conclusion Code.

The update harmonizes the codes with the IMDRF Adverse Event Reporting Terminologies. The FDA codes correspond to IMDRF Annexes A through D, available from http://imdrf.org/documents/documents.asp#imdrf.

FDA plans to harmonize all remaining FDA adverse event codes with the IMDRF codes as they become available.

The eMDR system rejects retired codes.

FDA has updated eSubmitter for the new codes.

A new technical report from CEN is an invaluable tool for EU-MDR and EU-MDR implementation. It provides a cross reference between the requirements of the new regulations and the clauses of ISO 13481:2016. The technical report has two extensive tables, one for each regulation. The tables start with the specific requirements in the articles, follows them through the annexes, identifies the applicable clauses of ISO 13485:2016, and offers a conclusion on the coverage.

CEN/TR 17223:2018 Guidance on The Relationship Between EN ISO 13485:2016 (Medical Devices – Quality Management Systems – Requirements for Regulatory Purposes) and European Medical Devices Regulation and In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Regulation

On November 17, 2017 FDA-CDRH issued the final guidance document on Unique Device Identification direct marking. The final guidance replaces a draft issued on June 26, 2015.

The UDI final rule created the system of direct marking. The final guidance provides additional details for the rules implementation. In particular, the guidance document provides definitions of some terms that apply to UDI direct marking including “intended to be used more than once” and “intended to be reprocessed”.

On December 5, 2017, FDA-CDRH issued a final guidance document on additive manufacturing replacing the May 10, 2016 draft version.

The final guidance document, Technical Considerations for Additive Manufactured Devices (UCM499809) outlines technical considerations associated with additive manufacturing processes, and recommendations for testing and characterization for devices that include at least one additively manufactured component or additively fabricated step.

The final guidance document includes two topic areas: Design and Manufacturing Considerations (Section V) and Device Testing Considerations (Section VI).

• The Design and Manufacturing Considerations section provides technical considerations that should be addressed as part of fulfilling Quality System (QS) requirements for your device, as determined by the regulatory classification of your device and/or regulation to which your device is subject, if applicable.
• The Device Testing Consideration section describes the type of information that should be provided in premarket notification submissions (510(k)), premarket approval (PMA) applications, humanitarian device exemption (HDE) applications, De Novo requests and investigational device exemption (IDE) applications for an additive manufacturing device.