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Update: URL's turned into links

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I feel that I am getting late to the discussion but anyways, here are my 2 cents:

If you are writing code for critical applications, the first thing you need to do is to make it as specific as possible: only one task!

Then you have to validate your application. Please, note that you also have to validate:

• Your operating system
• Your compiler (Perl)
• Your drivers
• Any library that your application is using (modules from CPAN)
• Even the processor on which your application is supposed to run (remember that some time ago 6 million pentium units were shipped with a flaw in the floating point arithmetic) (see for example: [1])

In short, you have to make your code as specific as possible and you have to make sure you have a strong validation system to ensure the quality of the software used in your application.

For general guidelines related to the development of software for medical applications, I recommend you to have a look at the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) guidelines in [2,3,4,5]

lin0

1. http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/comp/guidance/fod456.pdf
2. http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/ode/guidance/585.html
3. http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/comp/guidance/938.html
4. http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/ode/guidance/416.html
5. http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/ode/guidance/337.html