IEC 80601-2-49:2018 applies to basic safety and essential performance requirements of multifunction patient monitors, hereafter referred to as ME equipment or medical electrical systems. This particular standard applies to multifunction patient monitors intended for use in professional healthcare facilities as well as in the emergency medical service environment or the home healthcare environment.
The scope of this document is restricted to ME equipment or medical electrical systems intended for connection to a single patient that has two or more physiological monitoring units.
For purposes of this document, a pregnant mother and her fetus(es) are considered a single patient.
This document does not specify requirements for individual physiological monitoring units such as ECG, invasive pressure and pulse oximetry. The particular standards related to these physiological monitoring units specify requirements from the perspective of stand-alone ME equipment. This particular standard addresses the additional requirements related to multifunction patient monitors. Multifunction patient monitors can be integrated into other ME equipment or medical electrical systems. When this is the case, other relevant standards also apply.
This document does not apply to implantable parts of multifunction patient monitors.
This first edition cancels and replaces the second edition of IEC 60601-2-49, published in 2011. This edition constitutes a technical revision to align with the current edition and Amendment to IEC 60601-1, new versions of collateral standards and amendments thereto. Major changes are in Clause 208 because many of the former requirements are now addressed by IEC 60601-1-8.
