Quality Manual
Purpose
To define and establish a Quality Management System (QMS) that allows and guarantees compliance with the requirements applicable to our organisation during the design and development of medical software.
Scope of the quality management system
Design, development and commercialisation of medical device software.
This is a temporary scope pending confirmation with our Notified Body.
The organization
Description
We are a European company that proudly designs, develops, produces and commercializes software solutions for care providers.
Identification of the activity
We manufacture software as a medical device to aid healthcare practitioners and organizations in their clinical decision-making process, thus enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of care delivery.
The medical device currently developed consists of a clinical decision support tool, that is intended to be used in the clinical practice to care for patients with visible ICD classes.
Context of the organization
We founded our company in 2020 after years of research and prototyping. The founders of the company are Andy Aguilar, Alfonso Medela, Gerardo Fernández and Taig Mac Carthy. The headquarters are in Bilbao, Spain.
The project was created in the context of an increasing need for digital health, offering a solution to the necessity of a fast, efficient and convenient clinical diagnostic support and a constant and objective monitoring of the severity of the conditions.
Our company is composed of a varying number of employees. The number of employees and their roles are defined within the existing human resources tool, as described in our GP-005 Human Resources and Training.
Understanding of the organization and its context
Our context is composed of the following stakeholders (interested parties):
- The company and its partners, who aim at improving the state of the art of science and collaborating in the technological evolution of diagnostic support and severity assessment of skin conditions.
- The employees, whose requirements are the engine of technological value to improve people's health, together with their personal and professional evolution and satisfactory financial remuneration.
- The health authorities that evaluate if the solution is safe and effective to be available for their users.
- The patients, patients' associations and the general population who are affected by visible conditions, and wish to have an effective tool for monitoring their condition.
- The customers, consisting of healthcare providers, who aim at improving the health of their patients.
Mission
Our mission is documented together in the Annex 1 Quality policy.
Vision
Our vision is documented together in the Annex 1 Quality policy.
Organization role
We are legal manufacturers of medical device software for clinical decision support.
Applicable regulations and standards
The applicable regulation is the Regulation (EU) 2017/745 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Medical Devices and the Spanish Royal Decree 192/2023 regulating the medical devices.
To create and maintain our QMS we follow the standards:
- UNE-EN ISO 13485:2016 Medical devices. Quality management systems. Requirements for regulatory purposes.
- ISO 14971:2020 Medical devices.Application of risk management to medical devices
Other applicable standards, legislation and regulations specific for each medical device or family of medical devices are specified in each product description and specification document.
ISO 13485:2016 standard non-applicable requirements
- 7.5.2 Cleanliness of the product: due to its nature of medical device software, it does not require cleaning.
- 7.5.3 Activities during installation: due to its nature of medical device software, it does not require a physical installation, but a service provision.
- 7.5.5 Particular requirements for sterile medical devices: due to its nature of medical device software, it is not a sterile product.
- 7.5.7 Particular requirements for the validation of sterilization processes and sterile barrier systems: due to its condition of non-sterility.
- 7.5.9.2 Particular requirements for implantable medical devices: due to its nature of medical device software, it is not an implantable product.
- 7.5.10. Customer property: due to its nature of medical device software, it is not applicable.
- 7.6 Control of the monitoring and measuring equipment: due to its nature of medical device software, it is not required for follow-up in terms of measuring.
- 8.3.4 Re-work: due to its nature of medical device software.
Quality management system (QMS)
General requirements
The documentation of our QMS is structured in hierarchical levels as it is described in the figure below, wherein the criteria of the higher-level documentation prevails.
We have established, documented and implemented a Quality Management System (QMS) to constantly improve our effectiveness and efficiency of our software as medical device manufacturing processes, enabling our products to achieve the expectations of the Annex 1 Quality policy and satisfy the customer and regulatory requirements.
The implanted QMS standardizes the processes in all our activities to ensure consistency in providing quality and safe services to its customers. Our management ensures the availability of the resources and information necessary to support the monitoring of the processes. The use of self-assessments, data analysis, verification activities and review management ensure that the QMS is effective, as described in the procedure GP-002 Quality planning.
The adoption of a QMS is a strategic decision. Likewise, its design and implementation are influenced by varying needs, objectives, planned projects, employed processes, and the size and structure of the organization.
Finally, our QMS:
- Demonstrates its ability to consistently provide medical devices that comply with the applicable regulatory and customer requirements.
- Aims at its effective application, including the processes for continuous improvement and the assurance of conformity with the applicable regulatory and customer requirements.
All the internal documentation originating in the QMS is interconnected, every general procedure contains its related documentation such as other procedures, records and reports.
We have a general procedure to control and unify the formats and criteria for the preparation of all the documentation related to the QMS which is the GP-001 Documents and records control.
Quality manual
We implemented and maintain this Quality Manual that includes the following annexes:
Annex 1 Quality policy
Document that details the commitment of the management with the development, implementation and improvement of the QMS.
Annex 2 Processes map
Document where it is established a diagram that graphically describes all our processes and their relation and coordination.
Organizational chart
The different job descriptions and roles establishing their relationship with the personnel are defined by our human resources tool, following GP-005 Human Resources and Training.