Welcome to the first installment of Arnold & Porter’s Virtual and Digital Health Digest. This inaugural edition covers September and October highlights across the virtual and digital health space. This newsletter focuses on key virtual and digital health and telehealth-related developments in the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union in the healthcare, regulatory, privacy, and corporate transactions space.
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Latest on software and AI devices from the MHRA
By Jackie Mulryne & Eleri Williams on
The MHRA is continuing to publish details on how software and AI medical devices will be regulated in the UK post Brexit, with the aim of making the UK an attractive place to launch such products. The MHRA’s recent updates to its ‘Software and AI as a Medical Device Change Programme’ (the Change Programme) intend to “deliver bold steps to provide a regulatory framework that provides a high degree of protection for patients and public, but also makes sure that the UK is recognised globally as a home of responsible innovation for medical device software looking towards a global market.”
The MHRA has also recently announced it will extend the period during which EU CE marks on medical devices (including for software) will be accepted on the UK market, until July 2024.
We set out an overview of these updates below.…
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EMA’s Notice on validation and qualification of software tools used in clinical trials
By Alexander Roussanov on
On 7 April 2020, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued a Notice to sponsors on validation and qualification of computerised systems used in clinical trials (Notice). This Notice was developed by the EMA’s GCP Inspectors Working Group (IWG) and the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) to highlight for clinical trial sponsors the legal and regulatory requirements which apply to software tools used in the conduct of clinical trials.
In addition, the EMA updated the Answers to Questions 8 and 9 of the Agency’s Q&A on Good Clinical Practice (GCP) (GCP Q&A) in line with the Notice.…
UK guidance for developers of health care software and technologies
By Ewan Townsend & Daisy Bray on
Data-driven technologies, particularly artificial intelligence and other complex algorithms, have the potential to enhance patient care and catalyse medical breakthroughs. However, these technologies are heavily reliant on data, which poses challenges in ensuring that patient information is handled in a safe, secure and legally compliant way.
In response to early issues with the deployment of artificial intelligence and other algorithmic tools in healthcare, on 5 September 2018 the UK Department of Health & Social Care (DH) published an Initial Code of Conduct for Developers and Suppliers of Data-driven Health and Care Technology (the Code). The Code is not legally binding but aims to raise standards by establishing best practices.…
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Classification of software as a medical device
By Louise Strom, Lincoln Tsang & Jackie Mulryne on
Software can be considered a medical device under EU law. Although guidance has been issued by the European Commission and national authorities to assist in legal classification, factors or criteria that are considered as relevant in such guidance have not been validated by European or national courts. The recent decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on legal classification of software medical device is therefore instructive.
The European Court’s first decision on the classification of software in the context of medical devices legislation
On 7 December 2017, the CJEU issued its judgment in Case C-329/16. The CJEU agreed with the Advocate General’s opinion (discussed in our previous Advisory), and held that software can be classified as a medical device under EU law if the software has at least one functionality that allows the use of patient-specific data to assist the physician in prescribing or calculating the dosage for treating the underlying condition. It does not matter whether the software acts directly or indirectly on the human body. The decisive factor is whether the software is specifically intended by the manufacturer to be used for one or more medical objectives specified in Article 1(2) of Directive 93/42/EEC (the Medical Devices Directive), including the diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, treatment or alleviation of disease.…
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Advocate General’s opinion on software as medical devices
By Jackie Mulryne on
Posted in Medical Devices, software
On 28 June, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union gave his opinion on the SNITEM and Philips France case against France. In this case, the Conseil d’Etat in France asked whether a particular software programme intended to be used by doctors to support prescribing decisions falls within the definition of medical device as provided by Directive 93/42/EEC (Medical Devices Directive).