To meet the FDA's Quality System Regulation, medical device manufacturers must include design validation as part of their design and development activities. However, the regulation does not specify which product requirements must be validated or what methods satisfy a proper design validation process. This paper outlines an approach that device manufacturers can follow to determine which product requirements should undergo design validation testing and what types of testing methods should be used.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ANSI/AAMI ES60601-1: 2005Medical electrical equipment - Part 1: General requirements for basic safety and essential performance. Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, Arlington, VA. 2006.
2.
Design Control Guidance for Medical Device Manufacturers. Food and Drug Administration Center for Devices and Radiological Health. 1997.
3.
GinsburgG.Human factors engineering: A tool for medical device evaluation in hospital procurement decision-making. Journal of Biomedical Informatics.June 2005; 38(3): 213–219.
4.
GrahamM. J.KuboseT. K.JordanD., et al. Heuristic evaluation of infusion pumps: Implications for patient safety in Intensive Care Units. International Journal of Medical Informatics.Nov 2004; 73(11–12): 771–779.
5.
IEC 60601-1-6:2004 Medical electrical equipment - Part 1–6: General requirements for safety - Collateral Standard: Usability. International Electrotechnical Commission, Geneva, Switzerland, 2004.
6.
KleinG.Source of Power. How people make decisions. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 2000.
7.
KleinmuntzD.N.Human Decision Processes: Heuristics and Task Structure. In HancockP.A.Human Factors Psychology. Elsevier, Amsterdam: 1987. pp. 123–157.
8.
NielsenJ.Usability Engineering. Academic Press, San Diego, CA. 1993.
9.
ZhangJJohnsonTRPatelVL, et al. Using usability heuristics to evaluate patient safety of medical devices. Journal of Biomedical Informatics.2003; 36(1–2): 23–30.