NEWS

The planned CEN Workshop Agreement will define guideline for establishing and executing an instrumental-based approach for data collection regarding human load during the execution of MMH activities, both with and without HRC technologies support. The guideline will describe all necessary requirements and procedures to be used for recording and monitoring data leading to a quantitative risk assessment.

CEN recently published new standard EN ISO 15253 ‘Ophthalmic optics and instruments — Optical and electro-optical devices for enhancing low vision’. The new standard specifies requirements for manufacturers of instruments for use by the visually impaired as low vision aids.

The EN ISO 15883 series, jointly developed under the Vienna agreement by ISO/TC 198 and CEN/TC 102, describes the design and functionality of washer-disinfectors (WD), used to disinfect medical tools.  Part 1 of the series specifies general design requirements, process specifications and validation methods for all kinds of washer-disinfectors. The subsequent parts focus on the design of particular devices, processing special load including particular specifications of the processing process, such as requirements for the thermal processing of surgical instruments or the chemo-thermal processing of flexible endoscopes.

From counting calories to tracing COVID-19, there are hundreds of thousands of health and wellness apps on the market, and appetite for them is only growing. However, many have access to highly sensitive personal information, whilst others may offer advice that is not always supported by scientific evidence. In order to effectively evaluate the quality and reliability of such apps, a new technical specification has just been published. 

Two standards establishing an International Patient Summary, EN 17269:2019 and CEN/TS 17288:2020, were recently developed by CEN/TC 251 'Health informatics'. These standards cover the requirements for exchanging a core, essential dataset of healthcare data to support the continuity of care for a patient, whenever and wherever it is needed.

This CEN Workshop plans to develop a European standardization deliverable for COVID-19 health and safety protocols for tourism establishments and services. This work will be carried out as a result of a request received by the European Commission on 10 January 2021.