Medical Devices Data Systems, Medical Image Storage Devices, and Medical Image Communications Devices

Citation
Food and Drug Administration, Medical Devices Data Systems, Medical Image Storage Devices, and Medical Image Communications Devices (Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff) (Feb. 9, 2015) (full-text).

Overview
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognizes that the progression to digital health offers the potential for better, more efficient patient care and improved health outcomes. To achieve this goal requires that many medical devices be interoperable with other types of medical devices and with various types of health information technology. The foundation for such inter-communication is hardware and software that transfer, store, convert formats, and display medical device data or medical imaging data.

The FDA issued this guidance document to inform manufacturers, distributors, and other entities that the Agency does not intend to enforce compliance with the regulatory controls that apply to MDDS, medical image storage devices, and medical image communications devices, due to the low risk they pose to patients and the importance they play in advancing digital health.