In late 2019, the FDA introduced a new Safety and Performance Based Pathway which can potentially speed up the preparation and review process for certain submitters of pre-market notification medical device submissions. This optional pathway was created by the FDA to assist with well understood device types, in which a submitter references device specific guidance’s detailing the appropriate testing standards, as well as defined performance criteria to demonstrate the device is as safe and effective as a legally marketed device. Under the approach expanded in the Safety and Performance Based Pathway guidance, a submitter could satisfy the requirement to compare its device with a legally marketed device by, among other things, demonstrating that the device’s performance meets established performance criteria. These performance criteria are derived from FDA-recognized consensus standards, FDA guidance’s, scientific literature, special controls and historical 510(k) submission data. In all 510(k) submissions performance data is critical to proving a state of substantial equivalence to a predicate device and is often the most time consuming and complicated part...
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