The ISO 13485:2003 Standard has quality management systems at its heart

The ISO 13485:2003 Standard has quality management systems at its heart



The ISO 13485:2003 Standard relates to quality management systems in the field of Medical Devices. Its requirements ISO 13485:2003 specifically relate to organizations that are in the business of medical devices, no matter what its size or type. At its core, ISO 13485:2003 is all about quality management systems in medical devices.

This standard specifies requirements for a quality management system. Accordingly, it requires an organization to demonstrate the ability to produce medical devices and related services that have to consistently meet both –a) customer requirements and b) regulatory requirements –that are applicable to the file of medical devices and related services.

Harmonization at the core

It thus becomes clear that quality management systems, which are the means to ensuring these requirements, constitute the heart of ISO 13485:2003. This Standard’s essential objective is to foster and bring about harmonization among medical device regulatory requirements for meeting quality management systems. This Standard superseded the earlier version, the ISO 9001. It did away with some of the requirements of that Standard.


When a medical device company deals with medical devices it may not manufacture; it is its responsibility to ensure that processes applicable to the medical device(s) required by ISO 13485:2003, are accounted for in the organization's quality management system.

In a nutshell, these are some of the requirements set out from Part 4 of ISO 13485:2003 onwards, the Part at which quality requirements begin:

4.1: Establish a quality system for medical devices;

4.2: Document your medical device quality system;

5.1: Support Quality;

5.2: Focus on customers;

5.3: Establish a Quality Policy;

5.4: Perform Quality Planning;

5.5: Control your Quality Management System;

5.6: Carry out management reviews;

6.1: Provide quality resources;

6.2: Provide Quality personnel;

6.3: Provide quality infrastructure;

6.4: Provide quality environment

8.2: Monitor and measure quality;

8.3: Control your nonconforming products;

8.5: Take required remedial actions


References:
http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=36786
http://www.praxiom.com/iso-13485.htm


John Robinson
GlobalCompliancePanel
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Email: john.robinson@globalcompliancepanel.com