Re: 14971(2007) When Required
Brent
First some clarifications. International standard bodies such as ISO and IEC publish the standards, but they are not reponsable for compliance enforcement (a standard, in ISO and IEC view, is a recommendation). Legislation, such as the MDD, are the means of requiring compliance to a standard. But, in general, no regulatory medical device scheme asks for compliance to a standard, they focus on the requirement that risks be acceptable (strange enough, Brazil, where i live, is the only one i know where compliance to standards is obligatory). In this "risk management" scheme, standards are simply the easiest method of demonstration that some risks are considered acceptable (the MDD has a list of "harmonized standards" that uses the "presumption of conformity to the essential requirements" approach).
Answering your question: you´ll only have to "comply" to the new edition of ISO 14971 when the legislation in your country updates the standard as a mean of conformance to the requirements.
For example, in the case of Europe, the standard first will have to be published as an EN (european) standard, then it´ll have to be published in the Journal and, consequently, incorporated in the list of harmonized standards.
Even then, there´s always transition period where both old and new versions can be used, and just after that period "compliance" to the new version is required.
Hope that helps.
Cheers.