PERTH, Australia – Australian digital health company Resapp Health Ltd. received clearance from Australia’s Therapeutics Good Administration and CE mark certification in the EU for its stand-alone cough counter application that tracks cough frequency using a smartphone. The class I software as a medical device is the first regulatory approval for such an application, which uses Resapp’s machine learning algorithms to identify cough events from audio recorded using the smartphone’s in-built microphone.

The FDA’s device center has revisited the 2005 guidance for the content of premarket submissions for device software functions, a document that puts much more emphasis on risk compared to the legacy 2005 guidance.

Beijing Airdoc Technology Co. Ltd. raised HK$1.67 billion (US$214.8 million) with its IPO on the Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX) on Nov. 5, falling below its expectations of a $500 million raise. Share prices for the artificial intelligence-based (AI) medical imaging firm were priced at HK$75.10 apiece and dropped 3.5% to HK$72.50.

Software-as-a-medical device (SaMD) came into its own during the pandemic as digital health applications enabled patients to receive care from home through telemedicine, apps and remote patient monitoring. At the 2021 Medtech Conference, a panel of regulators, advocates and digital health executives discussed how the last 18 months may permanently change the regulation of these devices, the steps manufacturers can take to secure the footholds they gained, and how the U.S. CMS can enable digital health to achieve its promise.

The med-tech regulatory picture is already in a state of flux thanks to changes imposed by the EU, but device makers and those in the digital health space might soon be facing yet another series of profound changes in Europe. The U.K. Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has proposed to revamp its regulatory framework for both traditional medical device and for software/artificial intelligence, adding yet more uncertainty to an already turbulent European regulatory environment.

There are few guidelines of any sort that are specific to artificial intelligence (AI) for medical devices, but that doesn’t mean there are no signposts for developers. There are existing product marketing authorizations that offer some insights, but the FDA’s Bakul Patel said a risk stratification guidance by the International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDF) is an example of a non-AI blueprint for how the FDA will ultimately approach regulation of AI.

PERTH, Australia – Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is warning device manufacturers that new regulations for software-based medical devices may have changed the classification of devices currently on the market, and these devices will need to be re-registered if they are to stay on the market.

PERTH, Australia – Following consultation with medical device stakeholders in 2019 and 2020, the Therapeutic Goods (Medical Devices) Regulations 2002 were amended to clarify some existing requirements and to introduce new requirements for software-based medical devices. The new rules that go into effect on Feb. 25, 2021, clarify the boundary of regulated software products, introduce new classification rules, and provide updates to the essential principles for software-based medical devices.

The U.S. FDA has issued an action plan for regulation of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI, ML), which includes issuance of a draft guidance for change control for adaptive algorithms. There is no guarantee a final guidance will emerge before 2022, however, leaving developers with another year – perhaps longer – of uncertainty as to how to handle change control for their algorithms.

The U.S. FDA has exercised a considerable degree of enforcement discretion during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly when it comes to digital health. However, Christine Bump, principal at Penn Avenue Law & Policy, said that this very discretion has an uncertain shelf life and advised industry to remain compliant with the regulations as much as possible to avoid unnecessary enforcement actions by federal agencies.