Feature: Connectors
• Hydrogen peroxide gas plasma (Sterrad); • Gamma irradiation; • Ethylene oxide (ETO); • Chemical cleaning based on phthalaldehydse, peracetic acid, glutaraldehyde, and others.
Connecting medical equipment Tere are many instruments and pieces of equipment in an operating room, and most are connected to other systems and devices that include sensors and actuators placed on the patient. Cables and connectors are very important in these settings, and can impact the safety and reliability of the entire medical setup. In addition, patient and operator safety must be considered, and most certainly to protect against electrical hazards, as per the IEC 60601-1 technical standard. Medical devices must meet this standard before being sold in the US and Europe – in America as required by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It’s been found that operators and
medical staff regularly find problems with
Cables and connectors can
impact the safety and reliability of the entire medical setup.
Patient and operator safety must also be considered, most certainly to protect against electrical hazards, as per IEC 60601-1
cables that easily become unplugged or bent, or have their connectors wear out quickly. In addition to these these
considerations, when designing their products, medical device makers must provide for conditions such as their end use and subsequent sterilisation, as well as that of their connectors and cable assemblies. Te component selection should not only meet but exceed a set of re-processing standards. Tese are typically set into the instructions for use.
New requirements for IEC 60601-1 Means of Protection IEC 60601-1 sets out minimum requirements concerning the protection from electric shock for medical applications in which patients and operators can directly contact electrical equipment and systems. To effectively reduce these risks, manufacturers must
Figure 1: Life-cycle phases of reusable and disposable systems
www.electronicsworld.co.uk July/August 2023 41
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