The pre-market approval and clinical application of innovative medical devices should be based on high-quality evidence, proving their reliability, safety and effectiveness. In 2016, the IDEAL (Idea, Development, Exploration, Assessment and Long-term follow-up) collaboration modified the original IDEAL framework and recommendation to the IDEAL-D methodological framework for the entire life cycle evaluation of innovative medical devices. The framework included five stages, namely the preclinical development stage, idea stage, exploration stage, assessment stage and long-term follow-up stage. This paper aims to interpret the study purpose, content and design at each step of the IDEAL-D framework based on IDEAL framework and recommendation (2019) to provide practical methodological guidance for the design and conduct of clinical research on innovative medical devices.