– 14 – 60601-1 IEC:2005+A1:2012(E)
INTRODUCTION
In 1976, IEC subcommittee 62A published the first edition of IEC/TR 60513, Basic aspects of
the safety philosophy for electrical equipment used in medical practice. The first edition of
IEC/TR 60513 provided the basis for developing:
– the first edition of IEC 60601-1 (the parent safety standard for
MEDICAL ELECTRICAL
EQUIPMENT
);
– the IEC 60601-1-xx series of collateral standards for
MEDICAL ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT;
– the IEC 60601-2-xx series of particular standards for particular types of
MEDICAL
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
; and
– the IEC 60601-3-xx series of performance standards for particular types of
MEDICAL
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
.
Aware of the need and the urgency for a standard covering electrical equipment used in
medical practice, the majority of National Committees voted in 1977 in favour of the first
edition of IEC 60601-1, based on a draft that at the time represented a first approach to the
problem. The extent of the scope, the complexity of the equipment concerned, and the
specific nature of some of the protective measures and the corresponding tests for verifying
them, required years of effort in order to prepare this first standard, which can now be said to
have served as a universal reference since its publication.
However, the frequent application of the first edition revealed room for improvement. These
improvements were all the more desirable in view of the considerable success that this
standard has enjoyed since its publication.
The careful work of revision subsequently undertaken and continued over a number of years
resulted in the publication of the second edition in 1988. This edition incorporated all the
improvements that could be reasonably expected up to that time. Further developments
remained under constant study. The second edition was amended in 1991 and then again in
1995.
The original IEC approach was to prepare separate
BASIC SAFETY and performance standards
for
MEDICAL ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT. This was a natural extension of the historical approach
taken at the national and international level with other electrical equipment standards (e.g.
those for domestic equipment), where
BASIC SAFETY is regulated through mandatory standards
but other performance specifications are regulated by market pressure. In this context, it has
been said that, “The ability of an electric kettle to boil water is not critical to its safe use!”
It is now recognized that this is not the situation with many items of
MEDICAL ELECTRICAL
EQUIPMENT
, and RESPONSIBLE ORGANIZATIONS have to depend on standards to ensure
ESSENTIAL PERFORMANCE as well as BASIC SAFETY. Such areas include the accuracy with which
the equipment controls the delivery of energy or therapeutic substances to the
PATIENT, or
processes and displays physiological data that will affect
PATIENT management.
This recognition means that separating
BASIC SAFETY and performance is somewhat
inappropriate in addressing the
HAZARDS that result from inadequate design of MEDICAL
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
. Many particular standards in the IEC 60601-2-xx series address a
range of
ESSENTIAL PERFORMANCE requirements that cannot be directly evaluated by the
RESPONSIBLE ORGANIZATION without applying such standards. (However, the current IEC 60601
series includes fewer requirements for
ESSENTIAL PERFORMANCE than for BASIC SAFETY).