ISO 13485
Medical devices — Quality management systems — Requirements for regulatory purposes
Current edition: ISO 13485:2016
The quality management system of an organization that designs, makes, stores, services or sells medical devices. It asks for documented processes and records as evidence: design, purchasing, production and traceability, complaints, corrective action, internal audits and management review. Unlike ISO 9001, it is written around what regulators need, so it puts safety and evidence before customer satisfaction.
Who uses it: Device makers and their suppliers, quality managers, auditors and regulators; and medical centers judging a supplier.
Why it matters: A supplier that works to ISO 13485 shows that it follows a recognized quality system. For a medical engineer it is the shared quality language of the device world, and it is part of the US rules for device makers since February 2026.