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Quality Management Systems

Why ISO 13485 matters more in 2026 than ever before

Discover. Strategize. Implement.

On February 2, 2026, the FDA’s new Quality Management System Regulation (QMSR) took effect — incorporating ISO 13485:2016 by reference into 21 CFR Part 820. For U.S. medical device manufacturers, ISO 13485 is no longer an optional international standard. It is the operative regulatory text.

MSI has spent nearly three decades helping medical device design houses, contract manufacturers, and component suppliers build ISO 13485 quality management systems that also support their FDA, MDSAP, and EU MDR obligations — without bloating documentation or grinding operations to a halt. We adapt the standard to how your team actually designs, manufactures, validates, and ships product. Not the other way around.

MSI at a glance

Experience that de-risks your certification

80+
Companies certified via SurePath
100%
Certification success rate
600+
Employees trained
1998
Our Approach

Skip the gap analysis. Start building the ISO 13485 system that gets you certified.

Most ISO consultants open with a months-long gap analysis. We don’t. If you’re not certified today, you’re already roughly 90% non-compliant — paying to document that in detail is money and time you’ll wish you had back. We’d rather spend that budget building the system. SurePath is a holistic engagement, not a checklist. We embed with your team, build the QMS around how you actually design and manufacture, and carry you through to first-pass certification.

01

Holistic Onboarding

We start with your device, not a clause checklist. In the first weeks we learn your regulatory pathway — 510(k), De Novo, PMA, CE — where your design risk actually lives, and what leadership needs the QMS to deliver for the auditor, the regulator, and the customer.

02

QMS Design & Documentation

We build documentation that mirrors how your team actually designs and manufactures. Design controls under Clause 7.3, risk management aligned to ISO 14971, validation, CAPA, complaint handling, post-market surveillance, and the Medical Device File — all sized to your product class and operations.

03

Internal Audit & Training

We train your internal auditors on the clauses auditors actually inspect — design controls, CAPA, supplier controls, software validation, post-market surveillance — then run a full internal audit and close findings before the registrar walks in the door. Your team owns the system by the time we’re done.

04

Certification Audit Support

We sit with you through stage 1 and stage 2 registrar audits, respond to findings in real time, and stay engaged through surveillance audits year-over-year. Where MDSAP applies, we structure the system to support the single-audit model from the start. 100% first-attempt success rate across 80+ engagements.

Train Your Team

Build the system, then build the people who run it.

MSI is a consultancy and a training company in one. The same team that implements your QMS publishes self-paced ISO 13485 training your staff can take anytime — so your people own the system long after the registrar leaves.

Company-Wide Training

ISO 13485 Overview

A requirement-by-requirement walkthrough of the standard for your whole team — the training that signals everyone to start operating to the documented system and satisfies the certification audit's requirement that all staff were trained.

View the course →
Build Your Audit Team

ISO 9001 / 13485 Internal Auditor (2-Day)

Train your internal auditors to plan, conduct, and report audits across both your quality and medical device systems — with a hands-on practice audit that earns the Internal Auditor certificate registrars recognize.

View the course →
Management Review Toolkit

ISO 13485 Management Review System

A ready-to-run management review system that assembles every required input and data set into a professional review — taking the guesswork out of one of the standard's most scrutinized requirements.

View the ISO 13485 management review toolkit →
Browse the full ISO training catalog →
Training a Whole Team or Multiple Sites?

License MSI's entire ISO library with LearningPaths™.

Instead of buying courses one at a time, LearningPaths™ bundles MSI's full ISO training library into a single annual, role-based license — PDCA learning paths for executives, staff, internal auditors, and qualified auditors, across every standard and every site. Built from consulting since 1998, 80+ management systems built from scratch, and 200+ certification audits.

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ISO 13485 Management Review: What Clause 5.6 Requires

In ISO 13485, management review sits at Clause 5.6, inside Management Responsibility. In ISO 9001 it sits at 9.3. The device standard also sets its own requirements. Clause 5.6.1 calls for a documented procedure, reviews at documented planned intervals, and records of every review.

Clause 5.6.2 lists twelve required inputs:

  • Feedback
  • Complaint handling
  • Reporting to regulatory authorities
  • Audits
  • Monitoring and measurement of processes
  • Monitoring and measurement of product
  • Corrective action
  • Preventive action
  • Follow-up actions from previous management reviews
  • Changes that could affect the quality management system
  • Recommendations for improvement
  • Applicable new or revised regulatory requirements

Clause 5.6.3 requires recorded outputs covering:

  • Improvements needed to keep the QMS and its processes suitable, adequate and effective
  • Product improvements tied to customer requirements
  • Changes needed to meet applicable new or revised regulatory requirements
  • Resource needs

A device organization that also holds ISO 9001 has to cover both lists in one review.

MSI's ISO 13485 Management Review Tool Kit is built from Clause 5.6 itself, not adapted from ISO 9001. A combined ISO 9001 + ISO 13485 version is available for dual-certified organizations.

For a step-by-step walkthrough of running your first review, read our ISO 13485 management review guide.

Compare the ISO 13485 management review toolkits →

Build It Yourself, Or Start Before We Arrive

The ISO 13485 documentation, written to the device clause

Adopt. Adapt. Audit.

Not every organization is ready for a full SurePath engagement on day one. If you are building your quality system in-house, or want the documentation in hand before we embed with your team, MSI's ISO 13485 procedure templates give you the whole set as finished working documents — each written to Clause 7.3, 7.5, 8.2.4 and the rest of the device standard directly, not adapted from an ISO 9001 file that never had them.

The complete set

ISO 13485 Procedure Package

Every procedure a medical-device QMS requires, in editable Microsoft Word — design controls, production and service, risk management, internal audit, management responsibility, and the rest — with the four requirements the 2015 revision of ISO 9001 dropped reinstated, and the QMSR labeling and UDI obligations carried where they belong.

Get the ISO 13485 package →

Or one procedure at a time

Browse individual templates

Prefer to start with the one process that is failing rather than the whole system? Every procedure is sold individually and built to the same sixteen-section architecture, so they interlock as you add them. Score your current process free first — eight elements, no email — and see where the work actually breaks down before you spend anything.

Looking for the ISO 13485 Quality Manual, the Medical Device File procedure, or a combined ISO 9001 + ISO 13485 manual? They are all in the procedure templates hub.

Browse all procedure templates →

The documentation is the first phase of the project — so it counts as the first payment.

Buy any documentation package, and if within 30 days you decide you would rather MSI build the system alongside you, 100% of what you paid is credited toward a SurePath implementation, five or more days of ISO consulting or training, Online SureResults, or your first year on the SureResults annual program. The procedures become the backbone of the engagement — you never pay twice for the same documents. Building it yourself and building it with us are the same road, started at different points.

Business Outcomes

What ISO 13485 actually delivers when it's implemented well.

Beyond the certificate on the wall, medical device manufacturers with mature quality systems clear regulatory submissions faster, qualify with enterprise OEMs faster, and recover from inspection findings faster.

Growth

Market Access & Submissions

Qualify. Submit. Win.

Build one ISO 13485 quality system that supports U.S. FDA, EU MDR, MDSAP, and Health Canada market access. Accelerate 510(k), CE Mark, and supplier-qualification cycles with medical device OEMs that require ISO 13485 from every vendor in the supply chain.

Operations

Design Discipline & Validation Rigor

Design. Validate. Document.

Build design controls, risk management, and process validation into the engineering workflow — not bolted on after the fact. Reduce design transfer rework, shorten CAPA cycles, and tighten the loop between complaints, post-market surveillance, and design changes.

Trust

Regulator & Customer Confidence

Demonstrate. Document. Defend.

Give FDA investigators, notified bodies, and OEM supplier auditors visible, documented evidence of quality discipline. Retain enterprise medical device accounts that require annual proof of QMS maturity — and pass inspections without scramble.

0 %
Client success rate on first-attempt certification
0 +
Companies certified via the SurePath approach
0 +
Employees trained across regulated industries
1990
Serving medical device, aerospace & federal sectors since
In Their Words

Built around the business, not bolted on.

MSI didn't hand us a binder. They sat with our engineering team, learned how we actually design and transfer product, and built a QMS our people wanted to use. We passed certification on the first attempt with zero major findings.
— Operations Principal, Medical Device Design House
Pair It With

ISO 13485 + ISO 9001: Medical device quality, plus the broader QMS your OEM customers ask for.

Many of our medical device clients carry both ISO 13485 and ISO 9001 — particularly contract manufacturers and component suppliers serving customers in aerospace, defense, and industrial markets alongside their medical device work. Because MSI runs an integrated 9001/13485 methodology, building both at once is meaningfully faster than sequencing them — and it produces a single, unified QMS rather than two parallel binders.

Watch the ISO 9001 Brief →
Before You Commit

16 minutes. The ISO 13485 decision, made clearly.

Our ISO 13485 Executive Brief is a short recorded course built for leaders evaluating certification. In roughly 16 minutes, you’ll understand the real cost, timeline, and business case — enough to decide whether, when, and how to move forward. No sales pitch. Watch at your desk.

Watch the 16-Minute ISO 13485 Executive Brief →
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Find Your Fit

Not sure ISO 13485 is where you should start?

ISO 13485 is the path for medical device organizations — but most companies begin with ISO 9001, the foundation the others build on. The right standard comes down to one question: who are your customers, and what are they asking you to prove?

Whichever you start with, the goal is the same: a management system that helps you win better customers, enter new markets, and scale without the wheels coming off. Certification gets you in the door — and ongoing ISO maintenance keeps you there, audit after audit. Not sure which fits? Let's talk it through.

After Certification

Getting certified is the start. Staying certified is the work.

Certification isn't a finish line — it's annual surveillance audits, management reviews, internal audits, and documentation that drifts the moment the registrar leaves. SureResults™ is MSI's maintenance program: a dedicated consultant who already knows your system and handles the internal audits, registrar coordination, and ongoing improvements year-round, so nothing slips between audit cycles.

MSI clients average 0–1 findings at surveillance audits — and 85% of the systems we implement stay with SureResults.

Explore SureResults → Prefer remote? See Online SureResults →

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Twenty-eight years of practice, written down.
New and updated: ISO manual templates for ISO 9001:2026, ISO 13485, ISO 14001:2026, combined ISO 9001/14001:2026 and ISO 7101:2023. Editable Word, with a change analysis from the 2015 editions, and the new-style manuals include training video links.
See the manual templates →

Buy any Procedure Template Package and the price is credited 100% to ISO Consulting Projects, SurePath or SureResults Online or Traditional. This credit applies to Procedure Template Packages only and does not include manual templates. Terms apply.