IMDRF — International Medical Device Regulators Forum
The International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF) was established in 2011 to provide a forum to discuss future directions in medical device, including dental product, regulatory harmonisation at an international level. The IMDRF builds upon the work of the Global Harmonization Task Force (GHTF) on medical devices which disbanded following the formation of the IMDRF.
The primary goal of the IMDRF is to accelerate international medical device regulatory harmonisation and convergence. This is considered important given the pressures of a globalised manufacturing market for medical devices and dental product, in addition to increasing demands to streamline regulatory processes in order to deliver high quality products to the marketplace with minimal delays.
The membership of the IMDRF includes Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, European Union, Japan and the United States, as well as the World Health Organization (WHO). Meeting twice each year, members collaborate in areas such as new science and technologies, information and resource sharing and increased opportunities for technical expert interchanges.
Recognising the Australian Dental Industry Association (ADIA) as the peak representative body for the Australian dental industry, ADIA has been invited by the IMDRF Chair to send a representative to open sessions of the forum. ADIA’s engagement with the IMDRF allows the dental industry in Australia to work towards internationally harmonised regulatory standards for the approval of dental product. This helps lower cost for the manufacturers, importers and suppliers of dental product within Australia
The dental industry in Australia is able to directly contribute to the work of the IMDRF through the ADIA-DRC Dental Regulation Committee.
For headlines on the dental industry’s engagement with the IMDRF follow ADIA on Twitter @AusDental. For further information please sent an email to dental.regulation@adia.org.au or telephone 1300 943 094 (internationally on +61 2 9319 5631).