Medical devices are indispensable in health care delivery as tools for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation. However, despite the exponential growth of scientific and technological development, availability of and access to appropriate and affordable health technologies in low- and middle-income countries are still insufficient.

The call for innovative technologies aims at identifying and evaluating innovative medical devices, either existing or under development, which address global health concerns and which are likely to be accessible, appropriate and affordable for use in low- and middle-income countries.

Medical devices

Eligible health technologies are limited to medical devices as defined by the Global Harmonization Task Force (GHTF). They include instruments, medical equipment, implants, disposables, and software, used mainly for the purpose of prevention, diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of disease, or measuring, restoring or correcting physiological functions or control of conception. These technologies may be commercialized-sable or in a non-commercialized-sable stage.

The call does not cover clinical procedures, medicinal products, vaccines, biological therapeutic products or tissue engineered medical products.

Innovative technologies

To qualify for consideration, a technology must be deemed to be "innovative" by providing the demonstration that the solution:

• Has not previously existed;
• Has not previously been made available in low- and middle-income countries;
• Is safer and/or simpler to use than earlier solutions; and/or
• Is more cost effective than previous technologies.

Categories

Category 1 is for commercialized products or products which are commercialisable. This includes new products; products which have been commercialized for less than five years in high-income countries and which are not (yet) widely used in low- and middle-income countries; recent adaptation of existing non-health products for a health purpose; and/or recent adaptation of an existing medical device for low- and middle-income settings.

Category 2 is for products in a non-commercialized or a non-commercialisable stage. This includes products which are under development or otherwise in a conceptual stage.

Health concerns

Applications can be submitted for solutions to the following global health concerns:

• Lower respiratory infections
• Diarrhoeal diseases
• HIV/AIDS
• Malaria
• Prematurity and low birth weight
• Neonatal infections
• Birth asphyxia and birth trauma
• Unipolar depressive disorders
• Ischemic heart disease
• Cerebrovascular disease
• Tuberculosis
• Road traffic accidents
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Alcohol use disorders
• Refractive errors
• Deficient maternal health
• Infant and child (under 5) mortality

The application form should be completed in English, scanned and e-mailed as a PDF document to medicaldevices@who.int. Receipt of applications will be confirmed by e-mail. The deadline for submission is 31 January 2010.