Recitals 71 - 80 (MDR)
(71) This Regulation should cover clinical investigations intended to gather clinical evidence for the purpose of demonstrating conformity of devices and should also lay down basic requirements regarding ethical and scientific assessments for other types of clinical investigations of medical devices.
(72) Incapacitated subjects, minors, pregnant women and breastfeeding women require specific protection measures. However, it should be left to Member States to determine the legally designated representatives of incapacitated subjects and minors.
(73) The principles of replacement, reduction and refinement in the area of animal experimentation laid down in the Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council 24 should be observed. In particular, the unnecessary duplication of tests and studies should be avoided.
(74) Manufacturers should play an active role during the post-market phase by systematically and actively gathering information from post-market experience with their devices in order to update their technical documentation and cooperate with the national competent authorities in charge of vigilance and market surveillance activities. To this end, manufacturers should establish a comprehensive post-market surveillance system, set up under their quality management system and based on a post-market surveillance plan. Relevant data and information gathered through post-market surveillance, as well as lessons learned from any implemented preventive and/or corrective actions, should be used to update any relevant part of technical documentation, such as those relating to risk assessment and clinical evaluation, and should also serve the purpose of transparency.
(75) In order to better protect health and safety regarding devices on the market, the electronic system on vigilance for devices should be made more effective by creating a central portal at Union level for reporting serious incidents and field safety corrective actions.
(76) Member States should take appropriate measures to raise awareness among healthcare professionals, users and patients about the importance of reporting incidents. Healthcare professionals, users and patients should be encouraged and enabled to report suspected serious incidents at national level using harmonised formats. The national competent authorities should inform manufacturers of any suspected serious incidents and, where a manufacturer confirms that such an incident has occurred, the authorities concerned should ensure that appropriate follow-up action is taken in order to minimise recurrence of such incidents.
(77) The evaluation of reported serious incidents and field safety corrective actions should be conducted at national level but coordination should be ensured where similar incidents have occurred or field safety corrective actions have to be carried out in more than one Member State, with the objective of sharing resources and ensuring consistency regarding the corrective action.
(78) In the context of the investigation of incidents, the competent authorities should take into account, where appropriate, the information provided by and views of relevant stakeholders, including patient and healthcare professionals' organisations and manufacturers' associations.
(79) The reporting of serious adverse events or device deficiencies during clinical investigations and the reporting of serious incidents occurring after a device has been placed on the market should be clearly distinguished to avoid double reporting.
(80) Rules on market surveillance should be included in this Regulation to reinforce the rights and obligations of the national competent authorities, to ensure effective coordination of their market surveillance activities and to clarify the applicable procedures.