Medical Design Briefs - September 2023 - 37

reduce stockouts, and eliminate the risk
of expired or obsolete products. This
streamlined approach helps ensure that
healthcare professionals have access to
the right devices at the right time, ultimately
improving patient care.
n Enhancing Recall Management
Timely identification and retrieval of
recalled or expired products is crucial to
protect patient safety. RFID technology
simplifies and expedites the recall process
by providing a mechanism for fast
and precise tracking. When necessary,
healthcare providers can swiftly identify
affected products using RAIN RFID data
and trace them back through the supply
chain to their exact locations.
They can gain even greater visibility
utilizing the Electronic Product Code
Information Services (EPCIS), a global
GS1 standard for creating and sharing
visibility event data. This capability not
only facilitates efficient product retrieval
but also minimizes the time and effort required
to notify patients and healthcare
professionals, supporting rapid response
to prevent any adverse events.
n Conclusion
Healthcare industry stakeholders
worked together with GS1 US to identify
how manufacturers should encode
and provide a roadmap to assist the
industry in RFID adoption for supply
chain improvement. The " Implementation
Guideline for RFID in Healthcare
Manufacturing: Using GS1 Standards to
Enable Visibility and Efficiency " is designed
to ensure all recipients of tagged
products can decode and understand
the product information using GS1's
Electronic Product Code (EPC) schemes
outlined in the EPC Tag Data Standard
(TDS 2.0).1
Modernizing the healthcare supply
chain with digital technology has become
an imperative to enable far more robust
track-and-trace capabilities throughout
product life cycles. The industry is already
implementing DSCSA and UDI
requirements to enable more effective
traceability and beginning to use more
advanced data carriers for product and
location identification. RFID has potential
as a powerful tool for improving
healthcare supply chain management
with real-time visibility, streamlined inventory
management, and more effective
recall management. As the industry continues
to implement new supply-chain
solutions like RFID for improved visibility,
patients can look forward to a future
where timely access to critical drugs and
medical devices is assured, and the quality
of care is greatly enhanced.
Reference
1. " Implementation Guideline for RFID in Healthcare
Manufacturing: Using GS1 Standards to
Enable Visibility and Efficiency, " GS1, Ewing
Township, NJ, https://site.gs1us.org/RFID?utm_
source=article&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=hc-medicaldesignbriefs-rfid.
This
article was written by Beth Wells,
Sr. Director Community Engagement,
Healthcare, GS1 US, Ewing Township,
NJ. For more information, e-mail info@
gs1us.org or visit www.gs1us.org.
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Medical Design Briefs - September 2023

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