The clinical evaluation of medical devices is an organized and well-structured process that facilitates the continuous creation, collection, analysis, and evaluation of clinical-based data for a particular device. In doing so, the safety and efficiency including the clinical advantage of the said device for its intended use as highlighted by the producer are verified.
It is during evaluation, that the authorities can determine if the device is efficient and safe for public use. Medical devices are a general term for various forms of interventions within or outside the body, they aid doctors or make communication easier, and can sometimes be a part of the treatment or diagnosis. This makes verifying it is safe to use essential.
How Do You Evaluate A Medical Device?
There are two ways to go about it: evaluating a single medical device and evaluating several medical technologies or devices at the same time. The first method is done by classifying with respect to the development period of the device. This follows the product life cycle’s model and is used by the Food and Drug Administration to show the attributes of medical devices. You can use an EU MDR template if the process seems complicated. They are from seasoned medical professionals. As the experience of device testing and use accumulates, the development stage of medical devices overlays or iterates. When the product is in the market, product evaluations continue which results in improvements of the device.
Here some reasons why the safety and efficiency of medical devices are important.
To Ensure Medical Devices Do Not Compromise Health
After developing medical devices, it needs to be clinically evaluated to provide assurance that there are no risks associated with using the device. And if there are potential risks, they are within the acceptable level of health and safety risks. The acceptable risks must not outweigh the benefits of the device to the patient.
The health of the patient, users, or anyone who would be using the device must not under any circumstance be compromised. Evaluation makes sure it fulfills the objectives the device was designed for.
One fundamental concept in the design and creation of a medical device is its safety for users. That makes documenting investigations of possible risks by producers and comparing them to a detailed analysis of the benefits of the device very important.
To Conform Devices With Safety Principles
Manufacturers of medical devices must ensure that the solutions adopted were in sync with safety principles laid out for the development of a medical device, taking into consideration the generally accepted framework. The producers must identify pitfalls and related risks that might emerge from using the device for its intended purpose and predict misuse of the equipment.
The only way to identify risks is true evaluation and that would make it possible for the manufacturer to reduce those risks by formulating policies of inherently safe design. For risks that cannot be mitigated, adequate protection measures can and should be guaranteed. Safety principles also include informing users of any form of risks that might surface due to possible shortcomings of the protection policies implemented. How do you know there’d be shortcomings? You guessed right, through evaluating the device.
This would go a long way in helping to ensure the design and development procedure of a medical device is shielded from any foreseeable hazards that may be present in the device when it is been used as described by the manufacturer. As much as possible, the design and creation of the device must comply with safety guidelines or principles.
To Ensure Devices Aren’t Affected By Storage or Transport
One other importance of safety and efficacy in the evaluation of medical devices is to see to it that devices aren’t affected by transportation or storage. Devices should be designed and packed in such a way that the features and performance of the equipment meet its main objective and is not affected negatively during storage or transportation that is carried out with the information given by the manufacturer.
With the evaluation, the producer can get a documented feedback of complaint records and recent proof of testing to explain how the current style, packaging, and production of the device provides the acclaimed performance and isn’t influenced or affected by storage and transport.
In medical device reporting(MDR), the scope of the clinical evaluation is needed more than in the medical device directive (MDD). Medical device evaluation is part of the medical device development that must adhere to the general safety and performance requirements for the device to be accredited and CE marked. In simpler terms, for any medical device that’s to be taken to the counter, the producer has to go through the process of clinically evaluating his device.