#431: Meet Alex Naber: Insider Insights on Quality Systems, Design Quality, and MedTech's Patient-First Ethos

This "Meet the Guru" episode introduces Alex Naber, a seasoned medical device consultant at Greenlight Guru, offering listeners a deep dive into his background and expertise. Alex shares his journey, beginning in bioengineering and progressing through roles in complaints, field action, design quality, and post-market quality management at a major orthopedic company (Zimmer Biomet). His experience highlights the crucial need for expert guidance in navigating complex MedTech regulations and quality management system (QMS) pathways.

Alex and host Etienne Nichols discuss the immense value of having a diverse internal team of consultants to draw from—a collective knowledge base that helps solve complex problems for clients. They emphasize that quality professionals don't need to know "everything" but rather must have the right resources and a "beginner's mindset" to guide companies effectively. The conversation also explores how modern software, like Greenlight Guru's QMS and EDC solutions, eliminates common industry pain points, such as fragmented, error-prone spreadsheet-based design controls by building true, linked traceability directly into the eQMS.

Finally, the discussion touches on the philosophical "why" of the medical device industry: the patient. Alex shares a personal story about how orthopedics improved his grandfather's quality of life, underscoring the importance of maintaining a patient-first ethos. They conclude by discussing the upcoming QMSR transition, reassuring listeners that compliance is manageable, especially for those already adhering to ISO 13485.

Key Timestamps

• [01:50] Alex Naber's MedTech Career Path: From Bioengineering to Design Quality and Post-Market Management.
• [04:30] The Power of Pooled Expertise: Why Greenlight Guru's Consultant Team is a "Sherpa up the mountain."
• [07:35] The Problem with Spreadsheets: Comparing traditional Design Control methods to modern eQMS traceability.
• [11:00] Accelerating Compliance: How Greenlight Guru's QMS Templates dramatically cut implementation time.
• [13:30] The Bloated QMS: Why adopting procedures from large corporations may hinder small-to-midsize companies.
• [16:00] Design Quality Explained: Marrying R&D/Product Development with QMS compliance.
• [21:30] The MedTech Ethos: Focusing on the patient and improving quality of life.
• [27:00] CAPA Management Insights: The critical distinction between Correction and Corrective Action.
• [30:25] Navigating the QMSR Transition: Reassurance that compliance isn't "that deep" if you are already ISO 13485 compliant.

Quotes

"It's a rewarding thing to just understand that you don't need to know everything. I think that's a thing that... people should realize and they should reach out to other people that are smarter or more experienced in realms that they don't understand." - Alex Naber

"I think what got me into MedTech was more of the ethos behind it... We're creating products to make patients' lives better, to impact our world, our society in a positive manner, to give a better quality of life to individuals." - Alex Naber

Takeaways

1. Seek a Unified Quality Solution: Fragmented quality processes (e.g., design controls in spreadsheets separate from the QMS) introduce significant regulatory risk. Adopting an eQMS, like the Greenlight Guru QMS solution, creates true traceability and dramatically streamlines compliance.
2. Design Quality as a Partner, Not Police: Design Quality Engineers should actively partner with R&D, not just enforce rules. This involves educating product development teams on the why behind documentation and regulations to collaboratively find compliant solutions.
3. Implement CAPA Early and Correctly: A robust CAPA process is essential long before market entry. Quality professionals must know the difference between a correction (fixing the immediate issue) and a corrective action (addressing the root cause) to prevent systemic non-conformances.
4. Leverage QMS Templates for Speed: For new or growing companies, utilizing pre-validated QMS templates, like those offered by Greenlight Guru, can cut months off the time required to establish a 13485 or FDA CFR Part 820/EU MDR compliant system.
5. QMSR is Not Overwhelming: As the QSR evolves into the Quality Management System Regulation (QMSR), companies already adhering to ISO 13485 will find the transition is relatively minor, primarily requiring minor updates rather than a complete overhaul of their existing QMS.

References

• Alex Naber's LinkedIn
• Etienne Nichols' LinkedIn: Connect with Etienne
• ISO 13485:2016: The international standard specifying requirements for a quality management system where an organization needs to demonstrate its ability to provide medical devices and related services that consistently meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements. Relevance: This is the foundation for managing QMS changes, including the QMSR transition.
• Quality Management System Regulation (QMSR): The upcoming modernization of the FDA’s Quality System Regulation (21 CFR Part 820), harmonizing U.S. requirements with ISO 13485. Relevance: The central regulatory change discussed at the end of the episode.

MedTech 101 Section

Design Quality: In the medical device industry, Design Quality (DQ) is a specialized function within the Quality Assurance (QA) department. Its role is to ensure that the process used to design and develop a new medical device is compliant with the company's QMS procedures and applicable regulations (like FDA 21 CFR Part 820 or ISO 13485). Think of Design Quality as the engineer's compass and map for compliance—they guide the R&D team to make sure every requirement, test, and risk mitigation is properly documented and linked, preventing costly issues down the line. Without DQ, R&D teams might build a great product that can't be legally sold.

Correction vs. Corrective Action: These two terms are often confused in quality management:

• Correction: The immediate action taken to fix a non-conforming issue. Example: A batch of surgical instruments has burrs, so the correction is to re-polish them.
• Corrective Action (CAPA): A deeper, systemic action taken to eliminate the root cause of a non-conformance so it does not happen again. Example: The corrective action is revising the manufacturing work instruction to include mandatory daily calibration of the machine causing the burrs.

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Sponsors

This episode of the Global Medical Device Podcast is brought to you by Greenlight Guru, the only MedTech-specific platform that provides both a powerful Quality Management System (QMS) and industry-leading Electronic Data Capture (EDC) solutions. Alex Naber, an expert consultant from Greenlight Guru, highlights in this episode how integrating your design controls—the subject of his design quality expertise—directly into a compliant eQMS is the key to accelerating product development, eliminating audit anxiety, and truly improving the quality of life for patients. To learn more about how Greenlight Guru's dedicated solutions can streamline your path to market, visit www.greenlight.guru.