MeDevIS Platform:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has introduced an online platform called MeDevIS.
- Medical Devices Information System (MeDevIS) is the first global open-access clearing house for information on medical devices.
- It is designed to support governments, regulators and users in their decision-making on the selection, procurement and use of medical devices for diagnostics, testing and treatment of diseases and health conditions
- It replaces paper-based literature search across multiple publications with non-standard device names which can add to the complexity.
- Along with providing a single platform, MedevIS also aims to help make the naming of medical devices simpler.
- MeDevIS references two international naming systems for medical devices:
- European Medical Device Nomenclature (EMDN): It is mostly used in European countries for registration in the European database.
- Global Medical Device Nomenclature (GMDN): It is used in regulatory agencies in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the USA and other Member States.
- The naming systems include coding and definitions and can be used in every country to facilitate registration for regulatory approval, procurement and supply, inventories in health facilities, tracking and pricing.
- It can be useful for national policy-makers to develop or update their own national lists for procurement of health technologies and devices and can contribute to the progress towards universal health coverage.
- It can also help agencies with health insurance and reimbursement policies for patients.
