Understanding medical device regulation

The purpose of this article is to provide a structural and functional understanding of the systems used for the regulation of medical devices in the USA and European Union (EU).

Safe and effective anesthesia care depends heavily on medical devices, including simple, low risk devices to complex life-supporting and life-sustaining devices. In the USA and EU, the Food and Drug Administration and European Commission, respectively, provide regulatory oversight to ensure medical devices are reasonably safe and effective when used for their intended purposes. Unfortunately, practicing anesthesiologists generally have little or no understanding of how medical devices are regulated, nor do they have sufficient knowledge of available adverse event reporting systems.

The US and EU medical device regulatory systems are similar in many ways, but differ in important ways too, which impacts the afforded level of safety and effectiveness assurance. In both systems, medical devices are classified and regulated on a risk basis, which fundamentally differs from drug regulation, where uniform requirements are imposed. Anesthesia providers must gain knowledge of these systems and be active players in both premarket and postmarket activities, particularly with regard to vigilance and adverse event/device failure reporting.