Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry
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An MD&DI April 1997 Column

Directed by the Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has posted on the World Wide Web its plan to coordinate standards and conformity assessment activities among federal, state, and local government agencies and the private sector.

Intended to increase the competitiveness of the United States in the global marketplace, the plan describes an approach for developing a U.S. system of consensus standards and procedures for each of the following: voluntary standards, product certification, accreditation of testing and calibration laboratories, registration of quality and environmental management systems, and formal recognition procedures for private-sector bodies to support global trade. The act's other goal is the development of a system that meshes with those being developed internationally. For more information on NIST's plan to coordinate U.S. standards, visit its web site at http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/210/plan.htm.---Daphne Allen