Brodie Pedersen, CRO for Borderless MedDev speaks at the 2021 EMC Minnesota Event

The 2021 EMC Minnesota Event which was organized by Hoolihan EMC Consulting and attracted local engineers interested in sharing and learning about overcoming EMC challenges. This year its featured speakers include EMC and medical regulatory expert Brodie Pedersen, Chief Regulatory Officer for Borderless MedDev.

Mr. Pedersen, who also serves as vice-chair of the IEC SC 62A, (responsible for the IEC 60606-1 standards) discussed Amendment 1 of IEC 60601-1-2 – EMC and Medical Devices. This amendment which was adopted in 2020 represents the first adopted update to the 5th version of this standard. Most significant among the changes are additional testing requirements for magnetic fields which was driven by the prevalence of electronic article surveillance (EAS) and magnetically inductive cooktops and the need to make sure medical equipment can remain safe in the presence of these fields.

As the vice-chair of the IEC SC 62A committee and a representative of the US delegation on this international standards panel, Mr. Pedersen also described briefly the process by which these changes are adopted. Numerous changes were proposed by the members of the committee from around the world. Each proposed change was discussed and ultimately voted to be accepted or rejected. Many of the proposed changes that were rejected will likely be added to the 5th edition of the standard which is due to be adopted no earlier than 2024.