COCIR members have always played a driving role in developing the future of healthcare technology both in Europe and worldwide. For many years, COCIR has been proactive in green technologies and is at the forefront of green initiatives by proactively embedding environmental objectives throughout their products’ lifecycles.
COCIR created an Environmental Policies Focus Group in 2001 to follow and contribute to the development of EU environmental legislation and to share the Medical technology Industry needs.
COCIR is active on the following policies and trends:
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SELF-REGULATORY INITIATIVE FOR MEDICAL IMAGING EQUIPMENT (SRI)
The COCIR Ecodesign (ErP) Steering Committee was created in September 2008, following the presentation of the the first COCIR proposal for an industry-led Self-Regulatory Initiative to the European Commission, in order to further develop the Initiative and develop the methodology.
The Energy Related Products (Ecodesign) Directive enables the EC to set Ecodesign requirements through new regulations for any group of products which uses energy. In 2007, Medical Devices were identified as a "Priority A" product group by the EC for future regulation.
To avoid adverse business impacts (unnecessary costs and loss of flexibility in product design), COCIR reached a consensus with the EC to develop an alternative approach allowed under the Ecodesign Directive Annex VIII (Self-Regulatory Initiative.
In 2007 COCIR began the work to commonly establish golden rules on how to efficiently and safely refurbish medical equipment. The Good Refurbishment Process was then developed and a Paper was published in 2007 and widely shared among policy makers, regulators and other key stakeholders.
Responding to the positive feedback received from various stakeholders, COCIR decided to issue an industry standard, which was released on the occasion of COCIR’s 50th Anniversary in June 2009 and decided to revise the GRP paper to take into account all comments received since its initial publication.
The version 2 published in 2009 got in the meantime global endorsement as the Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA) in the USA and the Japan Industries Association of Radiological Systems (JIRA) decided to support the process
LEARN MORE ABOUT GOOD REFURBISHMENT PRACTICE
The COCIR China Desk was founded in February 2007. In May 2012 the ENVI Focus Group has been created with focus on developments of Chinese environmental legislation, in particular:
The Mission of the Focus Group is to uphold COCIR Members interest with Chinese Authorities and push for harmonization of Chinese legislation with EU one. Permanent communication between Europe and China provides useful information to Companies on how to comply with legal requirements.