Medical Devices

HHS and the healthcare industry issued cybersecurity “best practices” that focus on baseline measures such as protecting emails, limiting system access and developing incident response plans -- based on a pre-testing process intended to assess the effectiveness of the security guidelines.

The American Association for Homecare says that durable medical equipment suppliers that want to re-enter former competitively bid markets may be interested in becoming non-participating Medicare suppliers so that they can charge beneficiaries more than the Medicare allowed amount, given that CMS left many of the DME rates relatively low during the gap before the next round of competitive bidding starts.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb reaffirmed his agency’s pledge to keep a close eye on a female sterility device that has attracted international scrutiny this year for causing serious pain and bleeding in many women implanted with the device.

In response to a request from the medical device lobby, FDA is extending by 30 days the comment period for its proposed rule that would waive or alter informed consent regulations for minimal risk clinical investigations, according to an agency notice issued Wednesday (Dec. 19).

FDA announced two actions Tuesday (Dec. 18) aimed at encouraging industry to take advantage of two accelerated review and development pathways for new devices.

A medical device industry lawyer says a newly unveiled FDA final rule on medical device classification and reclassification improves on the 2014 proposed rule, and it could indicate the agency intends to reclassify more devices as it moves to update its 510(k) process.

Industry lawyers expect more in vitro diagnostic test makers to apply for CLIA waivers thanks to newly issued FDA guidances that make the process less prescriptive and clarify that tests for which trained and untrained users get comparable results are entitled to a waiver.

A device and diagnostics lawyer says FDA’s formal recognition of a public database of information about genes, genetic variants and their relationship to disease could help new genetic tests reach market.

After six months and over 250 applications, FDA finally announced the eight winners of an innovation challenge in which medical device developers submitted to the agency their best ideas for preventing and treating opioid addiction.