Colour of indication for ALARM SIGNAL inactivation states

VinceTech

Involved In Discussions
Hi,

What colour of the indication for the ALARM SIGNAL inactivation states, such as AUDIO PAUSED?

The indication is information signal, it shall be green. However, I saw many medical devices use the same colour as device visual ALARM SIGNALS.

Does anyone here had the similar question before? what is your comments? thanks,

Best regards,
 

yodon

Leader
Super Moderator
IEC 60601-1-8 establishes requirements for alarms on a medical device. Be sure that the condition meets the criteria for an alarm.
 

VinceTech

Involved In Discussions
Thanks, Kunal

I understand the requirement in IEC 60601-1-8. I also understand that the indicator shall be green if it's information only.

However, I have seen many medical device is using yellow or red to indicate the AUDIO PAULSE statue.

Have you ever seen this before?

Best regards,
 

Kunal Deshpande

Starting to get Involved
Hi,

For High priority(immediate response is required ) Red colour alarm is used & Yellow colour alarm used for medium priority(prompt response is required).


Kindly note that Dot matrix or other alphanumeric displays are not considered to be an alarm indicator light.
 

Pads38

Moderator
Hi Vince,

It is perhaps useful to go back to the old 601-1 Edition 2 requirements to 'get an understanding' of what is required.

Red - exclusively Danger or need for urgent action

Yellow - Caution or attention required

Green - Ready for action

From your description you would seem to be describing a caution information signal, so your light colour should be yellow, as Kunal earlier suggested.
 

VinceTech

Involved In Discussions
Hi Pads

Thanks for the comments.

I think the indication of the alarm signal inactivation (e.g. Audio Pause) is an information signal.

To make it simple, I attached a picture which includes an alarm priority indicator and a audio pause indicator. The alarm priority is medium as indicated in the marking when overheat condition happens. The operator is able to pause the auditory alarm signal, in this case audio pause indicator will be turned on.

Could you please let me know what the color shall be used for the audio pause indication?

Thanks
 

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K

krystle

Hi VinceTech,
We had a similar issue. our ECG device has 2 working modes, monitoring or holter and we were using green for the first and yellow for the second mode. The lab rejected the use of yellow as it means caution. So, we use Blue now for the holter mode as it is passive and person wearing it cannot take any action. Technically any other colour can be used for showing information; see attached table
Hope this helps.
 

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  • 60601-1 indicator lights.PNG
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Peter Selvey

Leader
Super Moderator
I think this is a valid issue that should be clarified in future versions of IEC 60601-1-8.

In the mean time I would suggest that this is just an aberration in the standards, of which there are many where we need to use common sense and overrule. The people that wrote the green/yellow/red would not have considered this particular situation and the people that wrote IEC 60601-1-8 would not have considered the need to modify IEC 60601-1 for this point (which is to be expected).

For a patient monitor, the use of green for the alarm silence indicator would not make sense as it could imply the situation is OK when in fact urgent action is still required. I have never seen green used for this symbol. Typically it is yellow-orange range.
 
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