Post-Market Clinical Follow-up - Clinical - QbD Group (4)

Post-Market Clinical Follow-up (PMCF)

Bringing a medical device to market is a complex process, and your responsibilities don’t end once the device is CE marked.

To ensure your product continues to meet safety and performance standards, ongoing Post-Market Clinical Follow-up (PMCF) is essential.

This proactive approach helps monitor your device in the real world, providing insights that keep you compliant and safeguard the health of users. And that's where we come in.

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Post-Market Clinical Follow-up - Clinical - QbD Group

Pre-market vs post-market

Pre-market

In the pre-market phase, collecting ample evidence to validate the safety and performance of your device is key. That way you ensure the intended use of your device and the claims you prefer to make are supported by robust clinical data while mitigating associated risks as far as possible.

Post-market

In the post-market phase, additional PMS activities are crucial. PMS involves setting up mechanisms for continuous collection of safety and performance data from the real-world use of your device. PMS activities can be either reactive (e.g. vigilance, management of complaints), proactive (PMCF activities) or a combination of both. PMS data help maintaining the continuous safety and performance profile of your device, ensuring that the benefits continue to outweigh the risks.

What is post-market clinical follow-up?

PMCF, as part of the PMS process, involves a proactive collection and evaluation of data from the clinical use of your CE marked device. The process provides valuable insights into the long-term effectiveness of the device, and it is a way to potentially detect emerging risks.

PMCF can be done in various ways. The most common PMCF activities are listed in the table below, each of them providing a different level of evidence. It is important for every Medical Device Manufacturer to identify the activities that are most relevant (general or specific methods), taking into consideration the risk class of the device and the purpose of the post-market data collection.

Type of method	Most common PMCF activities
General method	Case reports
General method	User feedback
General method	Literature/published research on the device safety and performance
General method	Safety database searches (e.g. FDA Maude)
Specific method	Evaluation of registers
Specific method	PMCF Survey
Specific method	PMCF study (interventional or observational)
Specific method	Investigator Initiated studies

The results of PMCF activities, as part of the PMS process, are taken up in the clinical evaluation and as such the process contributes to the ongoing risk management of the device.

Discover how we can help you

Why QbD Group?

Our team is well-equipped to support you in designing and executing various PMCF activities, tailored to their specific regulatory requirements and your device characteristics.

Whether it’s scouring through literature, sifting through customer feedback, or setting up reliable data collection methods. We maintain a strong commitment to attention to detail and strict adherence to regulatory standards.

In addition to assisting with PMCF activities, we can also provide robust support in documenting your PMS and Clinical Evaluation processes, ensuring thorough preparation for scrutiny by your Notified Body.

Get in touch

Interested in our PMCF service? Don’t hesitate to contact us and provide the details of your request including scope and expected timelines. We will contact you shortly to discuss these details and further steps.

Resources

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