Tech-in-Trace Healthcare Forum 2018: Making the Mark in Allied Healthcare Traceability
It takes an integrated approach to make remarkable changes to a company’s activities, as well as to the lifecycle of a given product, from its conception to its launch. This is no exception in the healthcare sector, as growing trends and demands are pushing for higher supply chain efficiency, traceability and accurate data synchronisation.
In the healthcare industry, good visibility in the flow of materials, products and the availability of trusted data or information linked to these physical flows is critical to Patient Safety. It is important to ensure quality and safety at a high level of performance and efficiency, from the manufacturer to the patient through the adoption of open global standards such as the GTIN, GLN, SSCC, GS1-128, GS1 Identification Keys and its equivalent.
What is interesting to note about the healthcare industry is that it is on the verge of disruption in the current digital trend too. Traceability becomes affected as a result as existing systems and operations may not fully support the demands on security and interoperability. For data portability and interoperability of records between systems to co-exist in tandem, there is a need for global identification standards to provide data linkage to different systems to enable the full potential of supply chain visibility. A new area to note would also be the prevalence of scandals, evolutions in the legal framework, counterfeit products and patient safety, which constitute new issues that challenge traceability in the health care sector.
An overwhelming turnout of more than 150 professionals signed up the Tech-in-Trace Healthcare Forum 2018 organised by the GS1 Singapore to hear varying perspectives, well-presented by a range of expert speakers from the healthcare industry. Participants came from a diverse mix of backgrounds, comprising: pharmaceutical and medical devices manufacturers and suppliers; wholesalers and distributors; group purchasing organisations; healthcare providers e.g. hospitals; government and regulatory bodies; solution providers and trade associations. The successful conference was held and well-attended at the Singapore Manufacturing Federation on 8 February 2018.
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