Search
Close this search box.

We are creating some awesome events for you. Kindly bear with us.

HSA enhances regulatory legislation to facilitate faster access to medical devices

HSA enhances regulatory legislation to facilitate faster access to medical devices

The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) announced
that its regulatory legislation will be enhanced to facilitate faster access
for certain lower risk medical devices (MDs) and standalone mobile
applications.

Acknowledging
that medical devices comprise a very diverse group of products, with varying
complexities and risk profiles, HSA regularly reviews its regulatory framework
to ensure that it remains relevant and effective.

“HSA
constantly reviews our regulatory framework to ensure that it stays relevant
and forward looking. Having obtained a better assessment of the safety profile
of MDs in the Singapore market, our moves to allow immediate entry of these
lower risk devices would enable us to focus our attention on newer and higher
risk devices.” said Associate Professor Chan Cheng Leng, Group Director, Health
Products Regulation Group, HSA.

According
to the announcement, HSA will also provide greater clarity to existing policies
and requirements for telehealth devices and high risk devices for the
modification of appearance or anatomy. The changes will take effect from 1 June
2018.

The
changes seek to cater to different operational and emerging business models in
the medical device industry, facilitate faster market access and encourage innovations,
while safeguarding consumer health and safety.

The
regulatory enhancements are the result of regular and extensive engagement with
the medical industry. As the time-to-market for new medical devices is
shortened, consumer access to these lower risk products will become faster. HSA
will continue to engage its stakeholders to further enhance the medical device
regulatory framework, while still ensuring that consumers’ safety is
safeguarded.

Faster market access

From
1 June 2018, the regulations for the following devices will be enhanced as
follows:

Credit: Health Sciences Authority

Class
A sterile medical devices, such as sterile examination gloves and sterile
intravenous sets, will not need to be registered with HSA. Previously, these
devices were subjected to registration to ensure that they comply with the
requisite standards on sterility. To ensure safety and facilitate post-market
surveillance and monitoring, importers/manufacturers will be required to list
all their Class A medical devices on the public online Class A database with
HSA.

Credit: Health Sciences Authority

The
current expedited Class B registration route, which currently takes 60
days for the product registration, will be subsumed under the immediate
registration route if they meet the following criteria of: (1) no safety issues
associated with the device globally, (2) two independent regulatory agencies’ approval,
or (3) one reference agency’s approval plus three years of marketing
history. With this, 75% of Class B applications, will be granted immediate
market access.

Class
B and C standalone mobile medical applications that are approved by at least one
reference regulatory agency without safety issues globally will be
eligible for immediate market access under the immediate registration route. These
applications include standalone application for calculation of insulin dosage,
or live monitoring of ECG for cardiac patients.

Clarifying
regulatory controls

Through
this regulatory enhancement exercise, HSA is also clarifying existing controls
by specifying in the legislation that:

Credit: Health Sciences Authority

(1) Telehealth
devices intended by its manufacturer for medical purpose will be regulated as
MDs. Those intended by the manufacturer solely for well-being or lifestyle
purpose, such as smart watch to track heart rate and heart rate measuring
devices in smart phones for fitness purposes, and not intended for medical
purpose will not be subjected to regulatory controls. However, a clarification
statement has to be included on their labels and advertisements that these
products are not meant for medical purpose.

(2) High
risk devices used for modification of appearance or the anatomy are subjected
to regulatory controls. To provide clearer guidance to industry players, HSA
has developed a Positive List to help industry players identify if their
products are regulated. These products are implants, injectable dermal or
mucous membrane fillers, and invasive devices for fat removal or fat
degradation purposes.

(3) For
more complex MDs that require users to have the relevant skills and knowledge
to use them safely and effectively, HSA will require manufacturers to provide
training for the users of these devices. Example of such devices are
implantable devices where physicians need to undergo training on implantation
technique before using the device on the patients.

Moving forward, HSA will continue to
strengthen post-market surveillance, which include checks and monitoring of
product compliance in the market, as well as close monitoring of overseas
alerts and local safety signals. These activities will enable HSA to detect
safety signals from the market early and investigate adverse events promptly,
safeguarding public health and safety.

Mr
Eugene Yoo, Chairman of the Medical Technology Industry Group of the Singapore
Manufacturing Federation shares, “HSA continues to be a leading innovative
regulator and advancing with the changing healthcare landscape. By putting
patients’ health and safety as its core mission, the amendments to the medical
device regulations will provide clarity and simplify the work flow for the
industry. This will certainly accelerate patients’ access to innovative therapy
and technologies; further enhancing the health and wellness of the Singapore
population.”

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Send this to a friend