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Medical device QMS consulting · ISO 13485 · EU MDR · FDA QMSR

Build or remediate an ISO 13485 QMS that is ready for scrutiny.

Build a quality system from scratch, remediate Notified Body findings, or strengthen a system that has grown faster than its procedures. Eclevar works from gap assessment through procedure remediation, CAPA, internal audit and ongoing quality management, against ISO 13485, EU MDR Article 10(9) and FDA QMSR.

  • ISO 13485:2016
  • EU MDR Article 10(9)
  • FDA QMSR
Where quality sits at Eclevar

Quality that is connected to the evidence it has to control.

Eclevar is a specialist medical device CRO. The quality function sits alongside the clinical operations, medical writing, data and regulatory teams that produce clinical evaluations, post-market surveillance inputs and clinical investigation records. That is the material an assessor asks to see, and it is why a quality system built in isolation can break down at the evidence interfaces even when the procedures look complete.

30+Medical device evidence programs
2,000+Participants across those programs
MulticountryEuropean clinical delivery
LifecyclePre-market through post-market

Eclevar's operating scope varied between these programs, from full clinical operations delivery to defined workstreams. The figures describe programs supported, not audit, certification or regulatory outcomes.

  • Nihon Kohden
  • Meril
  • Vygon
  • RegenLab

Medical device manufacturers that work with Eclevar across clinical, regulatory and quality programs.

Four starting points

What brought you here?

Most QMS conversations start from one of four situations. They require different scopes, priorities and levels of urgency.

01

I need a QMS from scratch

For a startup, a spinout, a first device, or a development organization that now has to operate as a regulated manufacturer and is preparing for first certification.

A practical ISO 13485 system built around how the company actually operates, rather than a procedure library it cannot follow.

Build my QMS
02

We received audit findings

For nonconformities from a Notified Body or certification body, CAPAs that are open or overdue, and a follow-up audit with a response deadline already running.

Root-cause investigation, systemic impact assessment and remediation of the underlying quality-system weakness, with the objective evidence assembled to support the response and the closure assessment.

Review our findings
03

Our audit is approaching

For surveillance, recertification, an initial certification audit, a deferred internal audit, a management review that has not happened, or FDA inspection readiness.

The weaknesses identified before the assessor finds them, and the critical gaps closed in order of risk rather than in order of convenience.

Assess audit readiness
04

We need ongoing quality support

For organizations without enough internal QA capacity: quality manager support, internal audits, CAPA management, complaints, supplier quality, document control, management review, vigilance interfaces and inspection preparation.

Senior quality capability without building a full internal department.

Discuss outsourced QA
What we are usually called about

QMS problems become expensive when an assessor finds them first.

None of these is unusual, and none means the company did something reckless. They are what happens when a quality system is built once, then asked to carry a growing portfolio, a new regulation and a second market.

  • Certification is approaching and the procedures exist, but they are not the way the work is actually done.
  • CAPAs stay open because the investigation stopped at the immediate cause, so the correction does not hold.
  • Documentation exists but the objective evidence that it was applied does not.
  • Clinical, post-market surveillance and quality processes are maintained separately and do not reconcile.
  • EU MDR requirements were added on top of an existing system in pieces, and the seams show.
  • Complaint and vigilance handling does not consistently feed CAPA and risk management.
  • Notified Body findings have to be addressed within the response deadline set by the assessing body.
Three ways to engage

ISO 13485 consulting services: build, remediate or maintain.

QMS build

Build an ISO 13485 QMS around your organization.

For a first certification, a new manufacturing or specification-developer role, or a system that has to be created rather than repaired.

Scope typically covers process architecture and the quality manual, a controlled procedure framework, document and record control, design and development controls, ISO 14971 risk management interfaces, supplier qualification, CAPA, nonconformity and complaint handling, post-market surveillance and vigilance interfaces, training, internal audit, management review, and a certification readiness assessment.

The number of procedures is not the deliverable. It depends on scope and product type, and a procedure count is not what carries a system through an audit.

QMS remediation

Close systemic gaps, not just audit findings.

For findings from a Notified Body, a certification body, an internal audit or an inspection, and for CAPA systems that are not producing durable corrections.

Scope typically covers review of the findings and the evidence behind them, containment where needed, root-cause investigation, systemic impact assessment, CAPA strategy, procedure remediation, retrospective record review where the finding requires it, training, implementation evidence, effectiveness verification, and a readiness review before the response is submitted.

How a finding is worked, end to end

  1. Audit finding The finding and the evidence the assessor relied on, read together.
  2. Root-cause investigation Why the system permitted it, not what the immediate cause was.
  3. Systemic impact Which other processes and records the same weakness reaches.
  4. CAPA Correction, corrective action and the plan the records will follow.
  5. Implementation evidence Procedures applied, people trained, records produced in the live system.
  6. Effectiveness verification Evidence that the corrective action is effective, gathered before the response or follow-up assessment.
Illustrative sequence. Every step produces a record. The final steps provide implementation and effectiveness evidence that an assessor may sample when evaluating whether corrective action has worked. Closure is decided by the body that raised the finding.

Rewriting the procedure that produced the finding is the fastest way to receive the same finding again. The work is to establish why the quality system allowed it.

Outsourced quality and QMS maintenance

Senior quality capability without building a full internal department.

For companies that need the function performed rather than advised on.

Scope can include quality manager support, the internal audit program, management reviews, CAPA oversight, supplier quality, the training matrix, change control, document control, complaints, post-market surveillance and vigilance coordination, quality indicators and audit preparation.

Engagements run project based, fractional, or as an ongoing retainer.

Deliverables

What you receive.

What exists at the end of the engagement, in your hands and in your document control system.

  • A QMS gap assessment against the applicable requirements.
  • A risk-prioritized gap register, separating audit exposure from structural improvement.
  • A remediation roadmap with owners and sequence.
  • A process map of the quality system as it will actually run.
  • A quality manual.
  • A procedure framework prepared for approval and issue under your document control.
  • CAPA records, with the investigation and the effectiveness verification.
  • A training plan and the records that evidence it.
  • An internal audit or readiness review report.
  • A management review package.
  • An audit readiness evidence matrix, mapping requirement to record.
  • An ongoing quality action tracker, for maintenance engagements.
EU MDR and FDA QMSR

Selling in both Europe and the United States?

Since February 2, 2026, FDA's quality system requirements in 21 CFR Part 820 have been the Quality Management System Regulation, which incorporates ISO 13485:2016 by reference while retaining FDA-specific requirements. That creates substantially greater structural alignment and can reduce duplicative quality-system work for manufacturers operating in both markets.

It does not make the two the same. An ISO 13485 certificate is issued against ISO 13485, not against FDA requirements, and it should not be presented as evidence of complete FDA compliance. One change matters commercially more than the terminology: under the QMSR inspection framework, FDA investigators may review management review, quality audit and supplier audit reports that had previously been exempt from routine FDA review under the former QS Regulation. Readiness now means being comfortable not only with your procedures, but with the internal quality evidence behind them.

Eclevar can assess a quality system against ISO 13485, against the EU MDR obligations that apply to your role, and against the applicable FDA QMSR requirements.

Scope of review

ISO 13485 gap assessment: what we look at.

Governance

Quality policy, responsibilities and authorities, management review, and the interface with the Person Responsible for Regulatory Compliance.

Product lifecycle

Design and development controls, change control, ISO 14971 risk management, and the interfaces with technical documentation.

Operations

Supplier evaluation and control, production and service provision controls where they apply, nonconformity handling and CAPA.

Post-market

Complaint handling, post-market surveillance, vigilance and field safety corrective action, and trend reporting interfaces.

Quality infrastructure

Document and record control, training and competency, the internal audit program, and the electronic systems the records live in.

Evidence interfaces

Clinical evaluation and post-market clinical follow-up inputs, and the records that move between evidence programs and the quality system.

EU MDR Article 10(9) requires manufacturers to establish, document, implement, maintain, keep up to date and continually improve a quality management system. It also requires that system to address, among other areas, regulatory compliance strategy, risk management, clinical evaluation including post-market clinical follow-up, supplier controls, product realization, UDI, post-market surveillance, vigilance, CAPA and effectiveness monitoring. Related obligations are further detailed elsewhere in the MDR, including Article 15 for the Person Responsible for Regulatory Compliance, Articles 27 and 29 for UDI and registration, and Articles 83 to 87 for post-market surveillance and vigilance, as applicable to the manufacturer and the device.

Our review is written against how those requirements operate across your actual processes, not as a clause-by-clause commentary on the standard.

Engagement model

ISO 13485 QMS remediation: from problem to plan.

  1. Understand the trigger

    Certification, a finding, surveillance, FDA readiness, growth or a capacity gap. The trigger determines what is looked at first.

  2. Assess the system

    Procedures, records, objective evidence, and how the system is used in practice rather than how it is documented.

  3. Prioritize the gaps

    Immediate audit exposure separated from structural improvement, with the reasoning written next to each one.

  4. Remediate and implement

    Processes, records, responsibilities and training, updated together. A procedure changed without training and records is a finding waiting to happen.

  5. Verify readiness

    A readiness review against the applicable requirements, effectiveness verification and an evidence review before the audit or the response.

  6. Maintain

    Ongoing quality support where the function needs to be carried rather than rebuilt.

Duration is set per engagement. It depends on the state of the system, the certificate scope you are seeking, how much implementation evidence has to accumulate, and the certification body's schedule, which is outside Eclevar's control.

A QMS is not finished when the procedures are written. It has to be implemented, evidenced and usable by the people responsible for operating it.

Who reviews your quality system

A medical device QMS consultant who reads your system the way an assessor will read it.

Jimmy Andrew Hayek

Head of Quality and Compliance

  • Runs quality management and regulatory compliance across the Eclevar group.
  • ISO 13485:2016 lead, with EU MDR and 21 CFR Part 11 validation experience.
  • Provides the quality oversight that sits above Eclevar's clinical programs.

Quality engagements are run out of this function, alongside the clinical, data and regulatory teams whose records the quality system has to control.

Former positions are stated for biographical context only. Eclevar MedTech is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any notified body or certification body. Meet the full leadership team.

Published work

BSI and Eclevar on PMCF and real-world evidence under EU MDR.

Written with the Notified Body BSI, a practical reading of what the EU MDR expects of post-market clinical follow-up and real-world evidence, and of where quality processes have to carry it. Useful if your quality system and your clinical evidence are currently managed by different people.

The whitepaper is co-authored work. It is not an endorsement of Eclevar's consulting services.

Quality connected to clinical evidence

What the quality system has to control.

Eclevar designed and is managing RegenLab's post-market clinical follow-up program on chronic wound devices, a randomized program across five European Union countries. The records it generates, protocol-controlled data capture, deviations, monitoring records, vendor oversight and post-market surveillance inputs, are exactly the records a quality system has to control. Running clinical evidence programs gives Eclevar direct visibility into the records, interfaces and controls a QMS has to govern across the evidence lifecycle.

This is a clinical evidence engagement, not a QMS certification or remediation engagement. No audit, certification or regulatory outcome is claimed.

Questions

Buying questions, answered.

Can you build our QMS from scratch?

Yes, it is one of the three standard engagements. The system is built around your product scope, your role under the regulation and the way your organization works, then implemented, evidenced and internally reviewed before you go to a certification body.

Can Eclevar remediate Notified Body findings?

Yes. The sequence above is the method: finding, root-cause investigation, systemic impact, CAPA, implementation evidence, effectiveness verification. Closure is decided by the body that raised the finding, not by Eclevar.

Can you take over an existing QMS rather than rebuild it?

Usually yes, and it is normally the better answer. A working system carries organizational memory and is worth repairing. A rebuild is proposed only when the structure cannot support the scope the company now has.

Can you act as outsourced quality support?

Yes, project based, fractional or as an ongoing retainer, covering as much of the function as you need carried.

Do you support FDA QMSR as well as ISO 13485?

Yes. Eclevar can assess a system against ISO 13485, the applicable EU MDR obligations and the applicable FDA QMSR requirements. What that means under QMSR is set out above, including the internal quality reports FDA investigators may now review.

Can you prepare us for a certification or surveillance audit?

Yes. Readiness work covers a review against the applicable requirements, verification that corrections have been effective, and a review of the evidence an assessor is likely to sample. Eclevar helps organize and prepare that evidence and can support your team during the audit. It cannot influence the outcome.

Can you review CAPA and root-cause investigations?

Yes, and it is one of the most common requests. The problem is rarely the CAPA form. It is that the investigation stopped at the immediate cause, so the correction does not prevent recurrence.

What do you need from us to run a QMS gap assessment?

Your quality manual and procedure list, your certificate scope or target scope, the last audit or inspection report with any open findings, the CAPA log, and the internal audit and management review records. If some of that does not exist yet, that is itself part of the assessment.

How long does QMS remediation take?

It depends on the severity of the finding, the number of processes affected, how much implementation evidence has to accumulate before effectiveness can be demonstrated, and any response deadline already set. A planning range is agreed after the gap assessment. Eclevar does not quote one before seeing the findings.

Can you work with our current eQMS?

Yes, the engagement is not tied to a platform. Where the system is electronic, the assessment covers validation status, access control, audit trail and record retention alongside the processes.

Does Eclevar issue ISO 13485 certificates?

No, and it cannot. Eclevar is a consulting and support provider. Certification is performed by an independent certification body, and conformity assessment under the EU MDR by a notified body. Keeping those roles separate is a requirement on them as much as a statement about us.

Next step

Talk to an ISO 13485 consultant. Show us where your QMS stands today.

Bring your upcoming audit, your current findings, your certification objective or the part of the system you already know is weak. We will tell you what should be reviewed first, and whether the right engagement is a build, a remediation or ongoing quality support.

Reforming Clinical Evaluation of Medical Devices in Europe