AHS collaborates with industry to push adoption of GS1 standards

EDMONTON | A collaborative initiative to encourage the use of global data standards throughout the Canadian healthcare supply chain is being supported by Alberta Health Services (AHS).AHS is working with several medical-device companies as well as medical technology industry association MEDEC and solution provider GHX to adopt GS1 global standards to improve health system quality and efficiency.Although there is widespread agreement on the value of implementing data standards in healthcare, actual utilization remains very low.The goal of the Canadian Healthcare Medical Device Standards Project is to drive real change by demonstrating how standards can deliver greater patient safety and improved business outcomes for all stakeholders in the healthcare supply chain.GHX will manage the project, and on its completion will document and publish the results in a white paper, which will be made available to other healthcare organizations so they can benefit from a simplified, sustainable and global model for standards implementation.The project will consist of two phases. First will be data synchronization: the development of a sustainable, efficient model for sharing product data via GDSN-certified data pools between participating suppliers and AHS. The second phase will be eCommece: utilization of GS1 data attributes in electronic data interchange (EDI) order transactions between the suppliers and AHS.“The ability for all stakeholders in the healthcare supply chain to utilize global data standards holds tremendous potential for improving the safety of our patients and the operational effectiveness of our industry,” says Jitendra Prasad, chief program officer, contracting, procurement and supply management, at AHS.“The only way we can develop a model for sharing and transacting data that benefits everyone is to work collaboratively together,” he adds.“We have assembled a group of stakeholders in Canada who are serious about demonstrating the value of fully implementing GS1 standards and are willing to showcase this proof of concept in their own organizations to accelerate industry-wide adoption,” says Nils Clausen, associate vice president, supplier sales, for GHX North America.The medical-device suppliers involved in the project are Baxter, Cardinal Health, Canadian Hospital Specialties, Cook Medical, Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson Medical Products.“This is exciting news and exactly where Canada needs to go to drive implementation of global standards across the healthcare sector,” says John King, chair of GS1 Canada’s Healthcare Advisory Council.“While we can leverage the experiences and lessons of other jurisdictions and active users such as NEHTA in Australia, and the NHS in the United Kingdom, more Canadian examples mean greater adoption.”A neutral, not–for–profit organization, GS1 Canada is a member of GS1, the world’s leading supply chain standards organization. Read more about GS1 standards

AHS collaborates with industry to push adoption of GS1 standards

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