How to report a Field Safety Corrective Action

What should the report contain?

The report on a field safety corrective actions should include all necessary information for the authorities, making it possible to assess and monitor the actions as they are implemented. The information should cover:

• Background information and reasons for initiating the FSCA

• Relevant parts of the risk analysis

• Description and explanation of the field safety corrective actions

• Guidance on the actions to be taken by the distributers or user

• Details of the affected medical device (such as catalog, serial, or lot numbers)

• Contact information for the manufacturer, national contact point and any authorized representative

• A copy of the Field Safety Notice (FSN)

What should the field safety notice contain?

In Norway, field safety notices must be in Norwegian, but an English version may be accepted until a Norwegian translation is available. The notice should be understandable to the recipient who will carry out the action. Field safety notices should include:

• Relevant Unique Device Identifier (UDI) or other identification details 

• Single Registration Number (SRN)

• Manufacturer's reference number for the measure.

• Clear information about the field safety corrective action, including:

  • Risk profile concerning patients, users, or others

  • Reason for the field safety corrective action and how it is related to the medical device

  • Clear and concise instructions on what users must do

Submission

When reporting a field safety corrective action to the authorities, the FSCA report and the Norwegian field safety notice must be attached at a minimum.

Submission Requirements

Both the PDF and XML versions of the FSCA report must be attached.

The report on the field safety corrective action and the field safety notice for medical device in the Norwegian market or from Norwegian manufacturers should be sent to the Norwegian Medical Products Agency (NoMA) via email (External Link).

Upon submitting the preliminary report, NoMA will respond with a case number. This number should be clearly stated in all subsequent communications.

If there are changes or extensions to the field safety corrective action, NoMA must receive a follow-up report and an updated safety notice where applicable. The updated safety notice should be distributed to users/owners.

Once the field safety corrective action is completed, a final report summarizing the actions taken with reconcilliation data must be sent to NoMA.

Overview of the different roles of economic operators:

 

Table showing the definition in MDR and IVDR of different roles of an economic operator

Economic operator	Definition in M​DR Article 2 and IVDR Article 2​
​Manufacturer	​A natural or legal person who manufactures or fully refurbishes a device or has a device designed, manufactured or fully refurbished, and markets that device under its name or trademark.
​Authorised representative	​Any natural or legal person established within the Union* who has received and accepted a written mandate from a manufacturer, located outside the Union*, to act on the manufacturer's behalf in relation to specified tasks with regard to the latter's obligations under this Regulation.
​Importer	​Any natural or legal person established within the Union* that places a device from a third country on the Union* market.
​Distributor	​Any natural or legal person in the supply chain, other than the manufacturer or the importer, that makes a device available on the market, up until the point of putting into service.
Health institution​	​An organisation the primary purpose of which is the care or treatment of patients or the promotion of public health.

*«Union» in this context means countries in the EU/EEA and​ Turkey.