IEC 60601-1-6:2010/AMD2:2020

IEC 60601-1-6 ®
Edition 3.0 2020-07
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
A MENDMENT 2
AM ENDEMENT 2
Medical electrical equipment –
Part 1-6: General requirements for basic safety and essential performance –
Collateral standard: Usability

Appareils électromédicaux –
Partie 1-6: Exigences générales pour la sécurité de base et les performances
essentielles – Norme collatérale: Aptitude à l'utilisation

IEC 60601-1-6:2010-01/AMD2:2020-07(en-fr)

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or
your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

Droits de reproduction réservés. Sauf indication contraire, aucune partie de cette publication ne peut être reproduite ni
utilisée sous quelque forme que ce soit et par aucun procédé, électronique ou mécanique, y compris la photocopie et
les microfilms, sans l'accord écrit de l'IEC ou du Comité national de l'IEC du pays du demandeur. Si vous avez des
questions sur le copyright de l'IEC ou si vous désirez obtenir des droits supplémentaires sur cette publication, utilisez
les coordonnées ci-après ou contactez le Comité national de l'IEC de votre pays de résidence.

IEC Central Office Tel.: +41 22 919 02 11
3, rue de Varembé info@iec.ch
CH-1211 Geneva 20 www.iec.ch
Switzerland
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.

IEC publications search - webstore.iec.ch/advsearchform Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a The world's leading online dictionary on electrotechnology,
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical containing more than 22 000 terminological entries in English
committee,…). It also gives information on projects, replaced and French, with equivalent terms in 16 additional languages.
and withdrawn publications. Also known as the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary

(IEV) online.
IEC Just Published - webstore.iec.ch/justpublished
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published IEC Glossary - std.iec.ch/glossary
details all new publications released. Available online and once 67 000 electrotechnical terminology entries in English and
a month by email. French extracted from the Terms and definitions clause of IEC
publications issued between 2002 and 2015. Some entries
IEC Customer Service Centre - webstore.iec.ch/csc have been collected from earlier publications of IEC TC 37, 77,
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or need 86 and CISPR.

further assistance, please contact the Customer Service

Centre: sales@iec.ch.
A propos de l'IEC
La Commission Electrotechnique Internationale (IEC) est la première organisation mondiale qui élabore et publie des
Normes internationales pour tout ce qui a trait à l'électricité, à l'électronique et aux technologies apparentées.

A propos des publications IEC
Le contenu technique des publications IEC est constamment revu. Veuillez vous assurer que vous possédez l’édition la
plus récente, un corrigendum ou amendement peut avoir été publié.

Recherche de publications IEC - Le premier dictionnaire d'électrotechnologie en ligne au monde,
webstore.iec.ch/advsearchform avec plus de 22 000 articles terminologiques en anglais et en
La recherche avancée permet de trouver des publications IEC français, ainsi que les termes équivalents dans 16 langues
en utilisant différents critères (numéro de référence, texte, additionnelles. Egalement appelé Vocabulaire
comité d’études,…). Elle donne aussi des informations sur les Electrotechnique International (IEV) en ligne.

projets et les publications remplacées ou retirées.
Glossaire IEC - std.iec.ch/glossary
IEC Just Published - webstore.iec.ch/justpublished 67 000 entrées terminologiques électrotechniques, en anglais
Restez informé sur les nouvelles publications IEC. Just et en français, extraites des articles Termes et définitions des
Published détaille les nouvelles publications parues. publications IEC parues entre 2002 et 2015. Plus certaines
Disponible en ligne et une fois par mois par email. entrées antérieures extraites des publications des CE 37, 77,
86 et CISPR de l'IEC.
Service Clients - webstore.iec.ch/csc
Si vous désirez nous donner des commentaires sur cette
publication ou si vous avez des questions contactez-nous:
sales@iec.ch.
Electropedia - www.electropedia.org

IEC 60601-1-6 ®
Edition 3.0 2020-07
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
A MENDMENT 2
AM ENDEMENT 2
Medical electrical equipment –

Part 1-6: General requirements for basic safety and essential performance –

Collateral standard: Usability

Appareils électromédicaux –
Partie 1-6: Exigences générales pour la sécurité de base et les performances

essentielles – Norme collatérale: Aptitude à l'utilisation

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
COMMISSION
ELECTROTECHNIQUE
INTERNATIONALE
ICS 11.040.01 ISBN 978-2-8322-8628-9

– 2 – IEC 60601-1-6:2010/AMD2:2020
© IEC 2020
FOREWORD
This amendment has been prepared by subcommittee 62A: Common aspects of electrical
equipment used in medical practice, of IEC technical committee 62: Electrical equipment in
medical practice.
The text of this amendment is based on the following documents:
FDIS Report on voting
62A/1391/FDIS 62A/1406/RVD
Full information on the voting for the approval of this amendment can be found in the report on
voting indicated in the above table.
The committee has decided that the contents of this amendment and the base publication will
remain unchanged until the stability date indicated on the IEC web site under
"http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data related to the specific publication. At this date, the
publication will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
NOTE The attention of users of this document is drawn to the fact that equipment manufacturers and testing
organizations may need a transitional period following publication of a new, amended or revised IEC or
ISO publication in which to make products in accordance with the new requirements and to equip themselves for
conducting new or revised tests. It is the recommendation of the committee that the content of this publication be
adopted for mandatory implementation nationally not earlier than 3 years from the date of publication.

_____________
© IEC 2020
INTRODUCTION TO AMENDMENT 2
The third edition of IEC 60601-1-6 was published in 2010 and amended in 2013. Since the
publication of IEC 60601-1-6:2010+A1:2013, the IEC Subcommittee (SC) 62A Secretariat has
been collecting issues from a variety of sources including comments from National Committees.
At the November 2015 meeting of IEC/SC 62A in Kobe, Japan, the subcommittee initiated a
process to identify high-priority issues that need to be considered in an amendment and should
not wait until the fourth edition of IEC 60601-1-6, which is presently targeted for publication
sometime after 2024.
Those issues selected for inclusion on the final "short list" to be addressed in Amendment 2
were those approved by a 2/3 majority of the National Committees present and voting at the
Frankfurt meeting of SC 62A. At the meeting held on 10 October 2016, nine items were
presented to the National Committees present. All nine items received the required 2/3 majority
of the National Committees present and voting and have been included in the "short list" for
consideration in preparing Amendment 2. All remaining issues have been placed on a "long list"
for consideration in the fourth edition of IEC 60601-1-6.
The "short list" of issues was documented in the design specification for Amendment 2. Because
these issues are closely related to the application of IEC 62366-1 to MEDICAL ELECTRICAL
EQUIPMENT and MEDICAL ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS, the work was assigned to IEC/SC 62A-
ISO/TC 210 Joint Working Group (JWG) 4. JWG 4 was directed to consider each issue
described in Clause 6 of the design specification and develop an appropriate solution for the
identified problem. That final solution in this amendment can encompass any technical solution
proposed by the author of the issue or it can involve a different solution developed by the expert
group. The expert group can also have recommended that no change to the document was
justified by the problem statement.
This amendment updates the references from the now obsolete IEC 62366:2007 to the current
USABILITY ENGINEERING PROCESS standard, IEC 62366-1:2015+A1:2020.
Because this is an amendment to IEC 60601-1-6:2010, the style in force at the time of
publication of IEC 60601-1-6 has been applied to this amendment. The style specified in
ISO/IEC Directives Part 2:2018 has only been applied when implementing the new style
guidance would not result in additional editorial changes. For example, references to
amendments take the following form: "IEC 60601-1:2005+A1:2012+A2:2020".
Users of this document should note that when constructing the dated references to specific
elements in a standard, such as definitions, amendments are only referenced if they modified
the text being cited. For example, if a reference is made to a definition that has not been
modified by an amendment, then the reference to the amendment is not included in the dated
reference.
– 4 – IEC 60601-1-6:2010/AMD2:2020
© IEC 2020
FOREWORD
Replace, in the existing fourth paragraph beginning with " This edition of IEC 60601-1-6 was
revised…", the reference to "IEC 62366" with "IEC 62366-1".
Replace, in the second dash of the existing ninth paragraph beginning with "In this collateral
standard, the following print types…", the reference to "IEC 62366" with "IEC 62366-1".
Replace the existing second paragraph before the last (including the footnote), beginning with
"To assist the user of this collateral standard…" and modified by Amendment 1, with the
following new paragraph and footnote:
To assist the user to implement the USABILITY ENGINEERING PROCESS, the Technical Report
1)
IEC TR 62366-2 [1] is available. IEC TR 62366-2 contains tutorial information to assist
MANUFACTURERS in complying with this standard. The Technical Report also goes beyond
safety-related aspects and offers more detailed descriptions of USABILITY ENGINEERING methods
that can be applied to the development of ME EQUIPMENT.
1)
Figures in square brackets refer to the Bibliography.
INTRODUCTION
Replace, in the second sentence before the last of the existing first paragraph, the term
OPERATOR-EQUIPMENT INTERFACE" with "OPERATOR INTERFACE".
"
Replace the last sentence of the existing first paragraph with the following new sentence:
The design of the OPERATOR INTERFACE to achieve safe use (adequate USABILITY) requires a
very different skill set than that of the technical implementation of that interface.
Replace, in the second paragraph, the reference "Figure A.1 of IEC 62366:2007" with
"Figure A.4 of IEC 62366-1:2015".
Replace, in the existing paragraph before the last, the last sentence with:
It should be noted that clinical investigations conducted according to ISO 14155 [2] and
USABILITY TESTS for FORMATIVE EVALUATION or SUMMATIVE EVALUATION according to this standard
are two fundamentally different activities and should not be confused.
1.1 * Scope
Replace, in the existing first paragraph, the words "design, VERIFY and VALIDATE USABILITY" with
"develop and evaluate the USABILITY".
Replace the existing third paragraph with the following new paragraph and note:
If the USABILITY ENGINEERING PROCESS detailed in this collateral standard has been complied
with, then the USABILITY of ME EQUIPMENT as it relates to BASIC SAFETY and ESSENTIAL
PERFORMANCE is presumed to be acceptable, unless there is OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE to the contrary.
NOTE Such OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE can subsequently originate from POST-PRODUCTION surveillance.
1.3.1 IEC 60601-1
Replace, in the first two bullet points of the existing second paragraph, the parentheses, added
by Amendment 1, with the words ", including any amendments".

© IEC 2020
2 Normative references
Replace the existing references to IEC 60601-1 and IEC 62366, both modified by
Amendment 1, with the following new references:
IEC 60601-1:2005, Medical electrical equipment – Part 1: General requirements for basic safety
and essential performance
Amendment 1:2012
Amendment 2:2020
IEC 62366-1:2015, Medical devices – Part 1: Application of usability engineering to medical
devices
Amendment 1:2020
Delete the reference to IEC 60601-1-8.
Replace the existing reference to ISO 14971 by the following new reference:
ISO 14971:2019, Medical devices – Application of risk management to medical devices
3 Terms and definitions
Replace the existing first paragraph with:
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in
IEC 60601-1:2005+A1:2012+A2:2020, IEC 62366-1:2015+A1:2020, ISO 14971:2019 and the
following definitions apply.
3.1
* OPERATOR-EQUIPMENT INTERFACE
Replace the existing term and definition with the following new term and definition:
3.1
* OPERATOR INTERFACE
means by which the OPERATOR and the ME EQUIPMENT int
...