Medical Devices                January 2020  
DG Health and Food Safety   
Directorate Health systems, medical products and innovation  
Unit Medical Devices  
 
 
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 The European Medical Device  Nomenclature (EMDN)  
The European Medical Device Nomenclature (EMDN) will be the nomenclature of use by 
manufacturers when registering their medical devices in the EUDAMED  database.  
Founded on  pre-established criteria and requirements1 and based on orientations provided by 
the Medical Device Coordination Group  (MDCG) , the European Commission decided in 
favour of the use of the ‘Classificazione Nazionale Dispositivi medici  (CND)’2 as the basis 
for the EMDN . 
Currently, a n extrao rdinary revision of the CND is ongoing so that  to release the first version 
of the EMDN, which will be i ntegrated in EUDAMED  for use by operators. The EMDN will 
be fully available and accessible to any operators and will be copyright free.  
To the extent possible, t he Commission will map the EMDN to the G lobal Medical Device 
Nomenclature (GMDN) . This task has been undertaken with th e hopes of  possibly facilitating 
EMDN code search by operators current ly using  GMDN . The correspondence between the 
nomenclatures is intended to be visible to operators and incorporated in the future database in 
the form of a searching tool. Therefore, and  in cooperation with GMDN, t he mapping 
exercise is currently ongoing . The level of quality and reliability of this mapping is dependent 
on the commitment of all relevant parties to work together in ma pping and validating the 
result s.     
A sub -group of the  MDCG on nomenclature which includes experts from National 
Competent Authorities and stakeholders has been established to oversee  regulatory activities 
linked to nomenclature . The sub -group will aim to define the rules and processes related to 
the creation, update , maintenance and  use of  the European Medical Device  Nomenclature.  
Additionally, t he Commission is currently collaborating  with the World Health Organisation 
(WHO ) in the context of their work  and activities on a future international medic al device 
nomenclature.  
                                                 
1 (MDCG 2018 -2) – Future EU medical device nomenclature: Description of requirements  
2 CND is currently used in Italy, Portugal and Greece.