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February 2, 2023February 2, 2023by valueaddedinLeave a comment

NABH CERTIFICATION OF ABDM HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS – Draft Standards

PUBLIC NOTICE FOR COMMENTS ON DRAFT NABH CERTIFICATION OF ABDM HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS (CAHS-1)

Announcement from NABH

National Health Authority (NHA) in collaboration with National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH) and Quality Council of India (QCI) has initiated a project, ‘Certification of ABDM Health Solutions – V1.0’ (CAHS-1) to certify HMIS/LMIS/Clinic solutions that have been integrated within Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) Sandbox. This ensures that essential features are provided to support integrated digital healthcare. The first draft of the standards is ready and is being placed for the comments, suggestions, objections by the stakeholders. The comments are invited on the following link.

Feedback form: https://forms.gle/4CY35qrY5WEndvWr 5

The draft standards are available on the following links:

The last date for receiving comments is 8^th February 2023.

Source – https://nabh.co/Announcement/Public%20Notice%20for%20NABH%20Certification%20Of%20ABDM%20Healthcare%20Solutions%20(CAHS%20-1).pdf

Do refer the draft standards and share your feedback .

PHDCCI Conference

July 14, 2022July 14, 2022by valueaddedinLeave a comment

Interactive Video Conference on Understanding ISO 13485 Certification for Medical Devices

Chandigarh Chapter, PHDCCI is organizing 5th in the MDR-17 Series| Interactive Video Conference on Understanding ISO 13485 Certification for Medical Devices as per the following schedule:

Day & Date: Friday, 15 July 2022
Time: 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm
Platform: Zoom

Session Highlights

• 7 Basic Quality Management Principles
• Overview of the Certification process and
• Importance of 13485 Certification from Compliance perspective

Key Speakers

• Mr. Mahadevan. J, VP & Business Segment Head – Medical, DQS India- Deutsch Quality Systems (India) Private Limited, Kodihalli, Bengaluru
• Mr. M G Sathyendra, Consultant & Trainer – Global Certifications, Qmart Global, Yeshwantpur, Bengaluru
• Mr. P.K.Minocha, Director, Meril Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd., Chala Gujarat
• Mr. Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator, Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AIMED), New Delhi
• Col. Rajiv Bhargava(Retd.), Associate Director, Indian School of Business, Mohali

Please register in advance by clicking the link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtdOyspjsuGNEyI95QZr_wRhoB9giV413X

You may send your questions to rimneet.kaur@phdcci.in prior to the session. The relevant questions will be answered during the programme.

For any query, you may contact:
Ms. Rimneet Kaur, Resident Director, PHD Chamber
Mob:+91 81460 02297 | Email: rimneet.kaur@phdcci.in

Mr. Avneet Singh, Sr. Resident Officer, PHD Chamber
Mob:+91 8283848012 | Email: avneet.singh@phdcci.in

WAD 2022 Event Update from CCC

June 25, 2022June 25, 2022by valueaddedinLeave a comment

World Accreditation Day Conference – Post Event Update

World Accreditation Day Conference 2022 – Post Event Update

WAD 2022 Conference jointly organised by International Accreditation Services (IAS), USA; Bureau of Indian Standards and Consultants Consortium of Chennai ended on June 10th 2022 with a positive a note.

Two days conference held on June 9th and 10th had eminent speakers from India and abroad , from various sectors , sharing rich insights about Standards, Certifications, Accreditations, Inspections & Regulations related to Sustainability and Environment across the globe.

Two days of intense learning sessions came to an end on June 10th.

Conference had 324 delegates registering for multiple sessions across two days and the feedback received from them is very encouraging.

The conference is supported by many Trade and Industry Platforms as listed below :

Sharing few pictures of the event for reference :

Dr R Velraj & CCC’s VP Mr Ramkumar Sivaraman

Dr Deepak Samuel V, CMR – NCSCM, Speaker

Mr Ashish Dev
Lead Auditor & Tutor- COTECNA India

Mr Premkumar Jayvin
Md/ Principal Consultant , Jayvin Management Systems and Solutions

Dr R Velraj & Dr Ghadevaru Sarathchandra

Mr Ramanathan Ganesan
DQS India , Speaker

Ms B Sandhya, Scientist G – Head – Certification, KIHT, Speaker

Dr Harinder Singh Oberoi
Advisor ( Quality Assurance ) – FSSAI

Mr VIshnu P. Sudarsan
Partner, J Sagar Associates

Dr Aparna Dhawan
Executive Director, TIC Council India

Ms Jyotsna Belliappa, Founder and Director – Bluesky Sustainable Business, Speaker

Mr Sandeep Bhargava
CEO – Onecert International
Nominee – ACBI, Speaker

Session Videos are shared here for industry and stakeholders benefit. Please check the links below

INAUGURAL SESSION :
Theme – Sustainability in Economic Growth and the Environment

Click Here

TECHNICAL SESSION 1:
Theme – Sustainable Standards for a Safer World

Click Here

TECHNICAL SESSION 2 :
Theme – ESG Rating for Sustainability Initiatives

Click Here

TECHNICAL SESSION 3 :
Theme – Sustainability Initiatives in Food Sector

Click Here

TECHNICAL SESSION 4 :
Theme – Sustainable Healthcare Initiatives

Click Here

TECHNICAL SESSION 5 :
Theme – Incorporating Sustainability in Educational Institutions

Click Here

NABH Announcements

December 30, 2021December 29, 2021by valueaddedinLeave a comment

Announcements from NABH – Fee Remittance Norms & Communication Matrix to be followed by all Applicant / Certified / Accredited Healthcare Organizations

Announcement 1 – Fee Remittance Notification

Kind Attention : All applicant / Accredited / Certified Health Care Organisations under all programs of NABH

In continuation to the previous notice of NABH related to fee payments issued on February 16, 2021, many Healthcare Organisations associated with NABH, are still making direct payment to Quality Council of India – NABH. NABH is facing d i f f i cu l t y in reconciling the amounts received directly as the details of payment are also not updated by the respective HCOs in their online portal.

To avoid unnecessary wastage of time and manpower in tracking the payments, NABH advises its stakeholders to make payments only through the online portal using the Payment Gateway so that the payments are appropriately tracked for convenience of all the parties.

In order to facilitate the Healthcare Organisations to reconcile the fee payment status, NABH is requesting all the HCOs to follow the below steps with immediate effect:

The HCOs a r e advised to login into their HCO account on the NABH portal for making payments through payment gateway via credit card/debit card/net banking.

HCOs are advised to refrain from depositing cash/cheque/DD directly into any account of Quality Council of India.

In case the HCO has no other option but Bank Transfer (NEFT/RTGS), it shall be responsibility of the HCO to update the transaction details like Unique Transaction Reference (UTR) Number, Date of Transaction, Transaction Amount, etc on the NABH Portal under the Make Payment category and inform NABH that the Payment was done and get the receipts generated for the payments made.

The HCOs are also requested to ensure that the payment details with respect to fee payments of current and previous accreditation cycles have been updated on the NABH portal account of the HCO, if not done earlier.

QCI-NABH plans to stop direct payments into its accounts done through DD/Cheque/Cash Deposit/Offline Bank Transfer (NEFT/RTGS) by March 31, 2022 and is seeking the cooperation from HCOs in this regards.

Download the notification from NABH here

Download

Announcement 2 – Communication Matrix Released for the benefit of all Applicant / Certified / Accredited HCOs

NABH has earlier issued NABH communication matrix – NABH/Notification/Communication/2020/2049 dated 25^th September 2020

All the applicant and accredited/ certified HCOs that are listed in the NABH portal have the provisions for making communications with the officials of NABH through “REMARKS COLUMN”. All HCOs are requested to utilise “REMARKS” for communicating/ raising queries regarding status of their applications for accreditation/ certification to ensure transparency as well as for records.

HCOs are also requested to refrain themselves from communicating through emails or telephonically. It is practically not possible to reply to each mail or phone call individually. Moreover, neither your communication nor reply from NABH is captured for the case record purpose.

In case, the queries of the HCOs submitted through remarks on the portal are not replied within three working days, emails to Program Heads may be sent, along with contents of email copied at on-line portal remark column. The list of all programs of NABH and the responsible Program Head with contact details are listed in the notification released by NABH.

Download the notification from NABH

Download Here

Source : https://nabh.co/index.aspx

Notification from CDSCO

October 18, 2021October 18, 2021by valueaddedinLeave a comment

Fresh Notification – Voluntary Registration & Labelling Norms from CDSCO for Medical Device Industry

CDSCO has released a fresh notification dated 12th October, 2021 clarifying its stand on Voluntary Registration and Labelling norms to be followed by the Medical Device Industry. CDSCO has called for feedback , suggestion from the industry to the proposed amendments.

Industry and stakeholders are requested to share feedback to CDSCO office, the details are listed in the notification below.

NOTIFICATION – New Delhi, the 12th October, 2021

G.S.R. 729(E).—The following draft of certain rules further to amend the Medical Device Rules, 2017, which the Central Government proposes to make, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 12 and sub-section (1) of section 33 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 (23 of 1940) and in consultation with the Drugs Technical Advisory Board is hereby published for information of all persons likely to be affected thereby and notice is hereby given that the said draft rules shall be taken into consideration on or after the expiry of a period of seven days from the date on which copies of the Gazette of India containing these draft rules are made available to public;

Objections and suggestions which may be received from any person within the period specified above will be considered by the Central Government;
Objections and suggestions, if any, may be addressed to

The Under Secretary (Drugs Regulation),
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, Room No. 434, C Wing, Nirman Bhavan,
New Delhi – 110011
or
emailed at – drugsdiv-mohfw@gov.in.

DRAFT RULES

(1) (i) These rules may be called the Medical Devices (……Amendment) Rules, 2021.
(ii) These rules shall, unless specified otherwise, come into force on the date of their final publication in the Official Gazette.

(2) In the Medical Devices Rules, 2017(hereinafter to be referred as said rules), in rule 19B, in subrule(2), in item (iii), at the end, the following Proviso and Explanation thereto shall be inserted, namely:—

“Provided that in case the applicant submits, on or before the 30th November, 2021, an undertaking that applicant shall obtain the ISO 13485 certificate on or before the 31st May, 2022 in lieu of certificate of compliance as referred in clause (iii) of sub-rule (2) of rule 19B, a provisional registration number shall be generated which will remain valid up to the 31st May, 2022 or the date on which the applicant obtained such ISO certificate whichever is earlier. The said generated provisional registration number shall be valid for all purposes.

Explanation.— For the removal of doubt, it is hereby declared that in case of such ISO 13485 certificate not obtained before the 31st May, 2022 as per undertaking referred in the Proviso by the applicant the provisional registration shall be deemed to have been cancelled for all purposes
without any notice.”

(3) In the said rules, in rule 19C, for the words “shall mention the registration number” the following words, letters and figures shall be substituted, namely:—

“may, if so desired, mention the registration number or provisional registration number, as the case may be, for a period up to the 31st May, 2022, thereafter it shall be mandatory for all registration holders”.

(4) In the said rules, in rule 19D, in sub-rule(2), in item (iii), at the end, the following Proviso and Explanation thereto shall be inserted, namely:—

“Provided that in case the applicant submits, on or before the 30th November, 2021, an undertaking that applicant shall obtain the ISO 13485 certificate on or before the 31st May, 2022 in lieu of certificate of compliance as referred in clause (iii) of sub-rule (2) of rule 19D, a provisional registration number shall be generated which will remain valid up to the 31st May, 2022 or the date on which the applicant obtained such ISO certificate whichever is earlier. The said generated provisional registration number shall be valid for all purposes.

Explanation.— For the removal of doubt , it is hereby declared that in case of such ISO 13485 certificate not obtained before the 31st May, 2022 as per undertaking referred in the Proviso by the applicant the provisional registration shall be deemed to have been cancelled for all purposes
without any notice.”

(5) In the said rules, in rule 19E, for the words “shall mention the registration number” the following words, letters and figures shall be substituted, namely:—

“may, if so desired, mention the registration number or provisional registration number, as the case may be, for a period up to the 31st May, 2022, thereafter it shall be mandatory for all registration holders”.

Download the Notification from CDSCO

Download

Source : CDSCO

Laboratory Director Designation – ISO 15189 Standard Requirement

March 28, 2021March 29, 2021by valueaddedin1 Comment

Designation of Lab Director, a QMS Specification, becoming a HR Issue in the Laboratory

Chithambaranathan Sivasubramonian, Associate Consultant

nathan@valueadded.in

Chat on WhatsApp

Medical Laboratories & the need to create a dedicated Laboratory Director Post / Designation to satisfy QMS requirement
Isn’t this becoming a HR issue

A Laboratory Professional from a client organization reached out to us seeking clarification on Lab Director’s role in Accreditation process. She was asked by the Management to redesignate Lab Director as Lab head in Accreditation documents and she wanted to know if its ok to do so as Accreditation norm is asking for Lab Director designation.

This has triggered an internal discussion at office and we were debating about the need to create / insist on Lab Director’s designation / role in labs seeking accreditation.

Medical Labs were obtaining National / International Certifications, Accreditations all these years and each program has its own spec. However, the global trend in the last few years has shifted towards introducing Minimum Standards for Medical Labs and many countries have rolled out the program. India too has rolled out the Minimum Stds for Labs as Regulatory spec under Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010.

Let’s take the case of a Lab appointing a Lab Director as an accreditation norm and see what is listed out by various National , International Stds for this requirement.

We have the following popular programs for Medical Labs running in our country :

Minimum Standards mandated under CEA. Both NABL, QAI offer Certification programs under this scheme in the country.
ISO 9001:2015 – Quality Management Systems Certification Program
Med Labs Certification Programs offered by NABH
Med Labs Accreditation Programs offered by NABL, CAP and QAI

Minimum Standards has mandated the Minimum qualification of Technical Head of Laboratory or Specialist or Authorized Signatories. Clearly defined spec on who should act as Technical head is mentioned. So any Certification program offered by NABL, QAI or any other body has to have the same spec in their Certification, Accreditation criteria as compliance to Minimum Standards is a Regulatory requirement.

ISO 9001:2015 Standard Clause 7 Support talks in general about Personnel competency, training needs etc. No other specification is listed as it’s a generic QMS Standard applicable for all businesses.

NABH Essential Standards for Medical Laboratories program talks about Personnel and its clearly mentioned about the Responsibility of Quality Manager & Technical Manager. But with respect to overall responsibility of the Laboratory Head, NABH Essential Standard for Medical Laboratories hasn’t mentioned anything much. So overall responsibility of Lab Head s not clear enough under this program.

QAI’s Recognition for Medical Laboratory Program, in Human Resources section – MBBS Doctor or MSc Pathology/Medical Microbiology/Medical Biochemistry are recognized qualification for Authorized Signatory. But there is no evidence of defining the overall responsibility of the laboratory head and the same isn’t clear in the QAI Recognition of Medical Laboratory Program either.

NABL’s Med Lab Accreditation Program mentions that Laboratory Director/ Head of Laboratory/ Technical Head (howsoever named), shall have the overall responsibility of Operations of the laboratory. Hence Lab Director’s Designation / Role is not mandatory. This is thee specific criteria document on NABL which is NABL 112. But the Standard for this program is ISO 15189:2012 which talks about the need to designate Laboratory Director.

CAP’s Laboratory Accreditation Program has a mandatory specification for Lab Director’s Designation and Role.

When 80-90% of the Labs in the country belong to Small labs category, can all qualify for Certifications, Accreditations. An ideal case is for Small labs to opt for Minimum Standards as 1^st step towards the Quality journey before migrating to Certifications, Accreditations Programs. Compliance to Min Stds is also mandatory as it’s a Regulatory requirement.

My Thoughts as a Lab QMS Consultant :

I’m going back to the question asked by the Lab Professional whether its mandatory to have Lab Director Role and Designation in the Accredited Lab.

As a Consultant in healthcare industry, I would say it’s a debatable topic. The requirement depends on the National, International Standards followed by the Med Labs.

I have listed out the personnel spec given by each Standard for Med Labs. Lab Director’s Designation is a hierarchy in the organogram and can’t be maintained by all Labs. Labs can specify their own designations as listed in the NABL 112 Criteria OR criteria.

PUBLIC NOTICE FOR COMMENTS ON DRAFT NABH CERTIFICATION OF ABDM HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS (CAHS-1)

1. First version of HMIS essential features

2. First version of LMIS essential features

3. First version of Clinics essential features

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