It's hard to believe we’re heading into the fall 2022 season! This has been a busy year for the healthcare and pharmacy sectors and The Beat is here to look ahead at what’s happening in the next few months. Make sure you’re ready for global standards adoption with our Digital Readiness Scorecards, check in on the GS1 DataMatrix Roadmap and read about the latest news from the Pharmacy and Healthcare Deployment Committees. Plus, there are a variety of events to anticipate from September through November: The Global GS1 Healthcare Conference will take place in Paris (and online) and a special industry partner conversation with the President and Chief Operating Officer of London Drugs Ltd. is scheduled in Toronto. Let’s jump into the Q3 edition of The Beat.
GS1 Canada is excited to share that Uniprix Group (Uniprix) and The Centre-Sud-de-l'Île-de-Montréal Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre (CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal) are adopting GS1 Standards, including GS1 Canada Industry Managed Solutions (IMS). The pharmacy chain and health network join the Canadian healthcare and pharmacy community in supporting standardized product data for accuracy and patient safety. This engagement is an important endorsement of GS1 Standards by Quebec organizations in leadership positions.
Uniprix is one of the leading pharmacy chains in Quebec’s retail pharmacy market and the largest group of independent pharmacists in the province. Ecommerce is a focus for the pharmacies, making access to reliable, standardized data vital to business. In light of this fact, Uniprix has requested that vendors engage with GS1 Canada and our IMS.
GS1 Canada is also working closely with CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal. This location of the health network is joining the movement to adopt GS1 Standards with deployment underway. We are thrilled to support Uniprix and CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal during implementation and for the life of the partnership. Part of our commitment to being a Trusted Strategic Partner also includes working with the suppliers to facilitate the use of standards. Welcome to both organizations!
Through the work of the Healthcare Deployment Committee, three Digital Readiness Scorecards are now available online. The purpose of the GS1 Digital Readiness Scorecards is to provide all healthcare supply chain stakeholders with a set of criteria to self-assess their current state of global standards adoption or planned capability by business or clinical use case. These user-friendly, interactive tools can be employed as a baseline to guide future planning and digital implementation priorities.
Scorecards for Healthcare Providers, Shared Service Organizations and Group Purchasing Organizations can be accessed here. Scorecards for Manufacturers, Distributors and Solution Providers are in pilot testing and will be available in late 2022.
In 2020, the GS1 Canada Pharmacy Board approved a roadmap for the adoption of GS1 DataMatrix barcoding on pharmaceuticals in Canada. Since then, the roadmap has gained traction across the country. This community direction aligns Canada with the global movement for the adoption of GS1 DataMatrix barcodes on all regulated healthcare products, including pharmaceuticals.
GS1 Canada continues to support the pharmacy community as it transitions to GS1 DataMatrix barcodes. The advancement of the pharmaceutical roadmap is a critical community initiative to advance patient safety and enable Canada’s digital state of readiness to advance supply chain optimization to the point of patient care and electronic medical record traceability capabilities by 2025.
It is recognized that the transition to a single GS1 DataMatrix barcode for Behind-the-Counter (BTC), Over-the-Counter (OTC), and Natural Health Products (NHPs) will align with the global movement for consumer goods and the Global 2D Migration program. Additionally, medical devices sold at the retail level will also align with the Global 2D Migration program movement for consumer goods.
Discussions about the global movement toward 2D barcodes for consumer goods and foods are underway, and readiness timelines are expected to extend beyond 2025. Canadian timelines will be established through GS1 Canada’s community management process. Should manufacturers of BTCs, OTCs, NHPs and medical devices wish to voluntarily adopt GS1 DataMatrix in advance of the pending global timelines, manufacturers are encouraged to prioritize those products with the potential to be dispensed due to a prescription—for example, some shampoos, OTCs and diabetes test strips can be prescribed and dispensed or administered while in hospital or long-term care.
Additionally, manufacturers are encouraged to follow the GS1 DataMatrix Roadmap for product samples. Samples that have the potential to be recalled or dispensed in a clinic or hospital setting require traceability, and therefore benefit from effective barcoding. The adoption of GS1 DataMatrix (2D barcodes) on pharmaceuticals at all packaging levels will allow greater supply chain visibility and increased patient safety.
For more information on this initiative, please visit the roadmap.
GS1 Canada has made a change to the Item Centre extract for pharmacy data recipients. This modification was done to make the Drug Merchandising attribute by province data easier for retailers to access and use.
Previously, Drug Merchandising by province was only visible on the user interface when logged into Item Centre. The Item Centre extract has been modified, allowing pharmacy retailers to now access province-specific drug merchandising and scheduling data for a particular item GTIN, where populated. As a reminder, the extract functionality is available through Item Centre in the Reports section, under Community Extract.
This revision enables data recipients to access drug merchandising and scheduling information in a more efficient way, providing additional information that can be used to make decisions for product placement both online and on-shelf.
For three days in November, the 37th GS1 Healthcare Conference will be hosted in Paris. It will be the first in-person event in three years that’s also hybrid, meaning virtual attendance is an option. This key global event for sharing information within the GS1 healthcare community will focus on efforts to implement the global standards that improve patient safety, supply chain security and efficiency.
Presenters from across the globe will share their experiences and knowledge from private industry and government agencies. Healthcare leaders are slated to talk about subjects ranging from preventing the proliferation of falsified medicines through traceability to the benefits of unique device identification for medical devices. The agenda includes breakout sessions, plenary sessions and the chance to network with fellow attendees.
GS1 Canada is especially excited to hear from a member of our Healthcare Advisory Council, Dr. Susan Moffatt–Bruce, who will be speaking in the Opening Plenary about delivering powerful clinical outcomes. Speakers from Belgium, France and Japan will also join this session, illustrating the global nature of the GS1 Healthcare Conference.
Register now for this highly anticipated event.
At the Pharmacy Deployment Committee meeting in June, members solidified the workflow value proposition on barcoding standards and data requirements for the Pharmacy Board. The voice of clinicians in the community is critical to achieving patient safety and product traceability goals. Also at this meeting, the Director of Pharmacy Services at Humber River Hospital, Albert Karas, shared his presentation Leveraging Technology in Healthcare: The Humber River Hospital Pharmacy Services Experience. The focus of Karas’ talk was the adoption of technology in pharmacy services and medication management systems.
Community involvement is an important aspect of GS1 Canada’s pharmacy sector collaboration. If you or a member of your organization is a subject matter expert in this area, we encourage your participation in the upcoming work session. To register, please contact the committee facilitator, Angel Bhathal, Senior Director, Industry Relations – Pharmacy at angel.bhathal@gs1ca.org.
The next Pharmacy Deployment Committee will include peer-to-peer education on the journey to applying standards and requirements to support digital health from a group purchasing and drug distribution perspective. The next meeting date is September 29, 2022.
GS1 Canada’s Healthcare Deployment Committee unites health system leaders to drive positive change across the healthcare value chain. This group works collaboratively to enact the GS1 Canada Healthcare Board-approved Statement of Direction to enable a Clinically Integrated Supply Chain in Canada’s Healthcare System.
Bringing together the different perspectives of Manufacturers, Distributors, Solution Providers, Group Purchasing Organizations, Shared Service Organizations and Healthcare Providers fosters a common understanding of the transformation needed to advance the vision of a Clinically Integrated Supply Chain for full transparency capabilities and interoperability in Canada’s healthcare system.
If you or a member of your organization is a subject matter expert in this area, we encourage your participation on the committee. To find out more and to join, please contact healthcare@gs1ca.org. The next meeting date is September 20, 2022.
