Can standards and regulations keep up with health technology?

Vincent, Christopher James, Niezen, Gerrit, O'Kane, Aisling Ann and Stawarz, Katarzyna ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9021-0615 2015. Can standards and regulations keep up with health technology? JMIR mHealth and uHealth 3 (2) , e64. 10.2196/mhealth.3918

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (388kB)

Abstract

Technology is changing at a rapid rate, opening up new possibilities within the health care domain. Advances such as open source hardware, personal medical devices, and mobile phone apps are creating opportunities for custom-made medical devices and personalized care. However, they also introduce new challenges in balancing the need for regulation (ensuring safety and performance) with the need to innovate flexibly and efficiently. Compared with the emergence of new technologies, health technology design standards and regulations evolve slowly, and therefore, it can be difficult to apply these standards to the latest developments. For example, current regulations may not be suitable for approaches involving open source hardware, an increasingly popular way to create medical devices in the maker community. Medical device standards may not be flexible enough when evaluating the usability of mobile medical devices that can be used in a multitude of different ways, outside of clinical settings. Similarly, while regulatory guidance has been updated to address the proliferation of health-related mobile phone apps, it can be hard to know if and when these regulations apply. In this viewpoint, we present three examples of novel medical technologies to illustrate the types of regulatory issues that arise in the current environment. We also suggest opportunities for support, such as advances in the way we review and monitor medical technologies.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Computer Science & Informatics
Publisher:	JMIR Publications
ISSN:	2291-5222
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2020
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 10:50
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/130622

Citation Data

Cited 32 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item