“The Agnew Clinic” | Thomas Eakins (1889)

International Electrotechnical Commission Technical Committee TC 62 prepares international standards and other publications concerning electrical equipment, electrical systems and software used in healthcare and their effects on patients, operators, other persons and the environment.  As such the work of this parent committee — which has broad implications for comparatively cash-rich multi-national medical equipment manufacturers — coordinates the work of several subcommittees; listed below:

62A Common aspects of medical equipment, software and systems

62B Medical imaging equipment, software and systems

62C Equipment for radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and radiation dosimetry

62D Particular medical equipment, software and systems

Germany is Global the Secretariat.  The Business Plan is linked below:

IEC TC 62 Strategic Business Plan 2021 February

The U.S National Committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission serves as the focal point for U.S parties who are interested in the development, promulgation, and use of globally relevant standards for the electrotechnical industry. The USNC is also engaged in the assessment of conformance to standards, undertaking work in areas such as testing, certification, and accreditation.  Tony Zertuche is ANSI’s point person (zertuche@ansi.org) and we encourage you to communicate directly with Tony for the most up-to-date information.

We coordinate our response to the development of IEC titles in this domain with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets 4 times monthly in European and American time zones.  When there are Committee Draft for Votes released for public consultation (CDV) we coordinate our responses with experts active in IEEE globally.

Since the scope of this committee’s work involves products (in the main) we rank it in the middle of our priority tier.  Our primary interest lies with interoperability standards, all the while recognizing that there is very little difference in the way education communities respond to IEC standard proposals than the way all other stakeholders would respond.  At the risk of understatement medical research and clinical healthcare delivery are a large part of the revenue of many university systems so that is why we track these titles and others.

We maintain work flow of this committee on our Health, Electrical and Nursing colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

International Electrotechnical Commission | Consultations

23 November 2021

Earlier this year one of the subcommittees of International Electrotechnical Commission Technical Committee 62 (IEC TC/62) released a redline (candidate revision) for public consultation:

IEC 63120 ED1: Refurbishment of medical electrical equipment, medical electrical systems and sub-assemblies and reuse of components as part of the extended life-cycle.   

We found similar concepts running through the literature among United States consensus product developers; notably the IEEE, NFPA and NEMA.  Re-use, reconditioning, recycling of electrical equipment is a priority that can contribute to the safety and sustainability agenda of healthcare enterprises in education communities so we follow it; vigilant for excessive market-making by incumbent verticals.

The comment period lapsed on March 27th but we will likely see more action in the technical committees receiving proposals from vertical incumbents making markets in medical equipment replacement parts.   We track development of this and other IEC titles on our provisional workspace*:

Collaborative Workspace for IEC Consensus Products

University affiliated medical research and healthcare delivery enterprises are large stakeholders in this domain so we keep pace by collaborating with other experts affiliated with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee (E&H) and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society.

We encourage our colleagues working in university-affiliated healthcare enterprises to interact directly with the IEC by setting up a Commenting Account to access the redline linked below:

Common aspects of electrical equipment used in medical practice equipment

It is our custom to follow the lead of the the US National Committee to the International Electrotechnical Commission (USNA/IEC) primarily, though we have significant professional relationships with academic scholars in other nations through the IEEE Standards Association and the E&H Committee.  We are happy to discuss any consensus product, any day at 11 AM Eastern time, however the expertise for responding to invitations for public comment like this is usually present during the E&H Committee meetings which take place four times monthly in European and American time zones.

Issue: [11-66]

Category: Electrical, Healthcare Facilities, International

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Giuseppe Parise, Luigi Parise, Massimo Mitolo

*This is a carry-over workspace from the original University of Michigan facility standards enterprise — @StandardsUMich — and has been re-purposed for educational use and collaboration with the IEEE E&H Committee and the IEEE Engineering in Medical and Biology Society

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