World Standards Cooperation – High-level workshop
Geneva, 26-27 February 2004

International Standards for Medical technologies

World Health Organization,
WHO Building
Avenue Appia 20, Geneva
Switzerland

Attendance at this Workshop is by invitation only.

International standardization brings substantial benefits to industry, government and the public in all countries of the world. When the goals of industry, government and the patient care community are consistent, as they have been for the most part, the needs of all interested and affected parties can be met, with adequate participation and funding from all stakeholders.

The workshop is designed as a forum where high-level representatives of the major players involved in the field of medical technologies (industry, regulators, the patient care community and standards developing organizations from all regions of the world) can interact to review current approaches and projects underway in international standardization, highlight the main trends for the future, and offer indications on how to address present and future challenges, with a view to providing input on priorities, programmes and approaches that can help the development and implementation of standards to respond optimally to the evolving needs of society and markets.

Presentations from highly qualified speakers representing the various stakeholders, along with open sessions (discussion panels), will make it possible to:

• highlight or clarify the principles governing the agenda for standardization of all the players, including industry, government authorities, international organizations and professional associations of users of medical technologies, which serve as a foundation for international standardization of medical technologies;
  
• analyze the existing or perceived challenges to development and completion of work;
  
• review the existing approaches and suggest new mechanisms (if needed), or improvements in existing mechanisms, to accomplishing effective international standardization;
  
• present and learn from success case studies or models.