Click here to see the slideshow presented by GS1 at the March 8 meeting

Because errors can be extremely costly
Like every company in the world, your company has databases filled with information about the products you make, sell, or buy. These databases act like catalogues that customers can use to place orders and manage their supply chain. Difficulties happen when one company needs to change any of the information in their database or add a new item to it: suddenly their  “catalogue” isn’t up to date anymore and the information is no longer reliable. This has become even more important in recent years: errors in invoices and inefficiencies in a global supply chain reduce business profitability, inhibit effectiveness and can even cause deaths.

The medical technology sector is an extremely complex environment in which people, drugs and medical devices need to be accurately traced to ensure that the right drug or device is provided to the right patient at the right time in the right way. Because doctors and nurses are only human, caregivers sometimes give the wrong dose to a patient. Or the wrong medicine. Or the right dose of the right medicine... but to the wrong patient. Every day, hundreds of people die because of errors like these.

Three options stand out
Most of those mistakes could be easily prevented and the medical technology sector is working toward that end by bringing together hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, transporters, and more. All are working together to develop standards that increase patient safety and improve patient care through reduced usage errors and improved product traceability. Three key technologies involved in doing this are the barcode, the databar and the RFID tag.

The bar code: scanned 5 billion times a day
Originally created by manufacturers and retailers to increase efficiency in the distribution of food and consumer goods, bar codes today are used by millions of companies around the world to automatically identify products, pallets and places. Scanned at least 5 billion times a day, bar codes transmit product or service information to thousands of computers of different kinds to manage shipments, storage, ordering, sales. Their use has spread from the retail supply chain to all industry sectors, including healthcare, transportation and logistics, aeronautics, defense, chemicals and high technology.

The databar: quite a lot smaller yet more powerful
The familiar old bar code now comes in a new version called GS1 DataBar. Although it can hold a lot more information, the DataBar is smaller than its predecessor and therefore be placed on very small items, like individual pieces of fruit or computer chips. Not only can it hold details, like “best-before” dates, discount coupons and medication dispensing instructions, it also can provide all the information needed for processing by cash registers or medical scanners.

RFID: tracking without scanning
Another, even more sophisticated form of data coding is RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification. RFID is a technology that uses tags containing silicon chips and antennas to track products. Objects with an RFID tag can be “read” without having to be passed directly over a scanner. RFID can help manage shipments, inventories and assets, reduce counterfeiting, minimize medical errors, fight theft, and offer numerous other applications. But implementing RFID is a highly technical and complex process which involves properly managing all the elements involved: the tags and their very small components, handheld readers, gate-sized readers, software, the precise frequencies in which the tags will transmit... even the proper kinds of paper and glue used to make the stickers with RFID tags in them.

Accurate, detailed and up-to-date product information helps companies and consumers. Brand owners can get new products out to the market faster and more smoothly. Retailers have less administrative work and fewer mistakes in orders and shipments. And consumers are better able to buy and use the products they need. And thanks to synchronization, companies who do business with each other to always have the same information in their systems. Any changes made by one company are automatically and immediately available to all of the other companies who do business with them.

Medtech companies are no longer exempt
For all the reasons outlined in this article, most industry sectors have long since converted their whole supply chain to some form of product coding. Up until recently, the field of medical technology was an exception and many small and medium sized companies still had the option to avoid any kind of universal product coding. As you likely know, this is no longer the case. According to a recent FDA ruling, all medical technology products entering the USA will soon have to be bar coded. A similar ruling is expected from Health Canada.

Time is running out. Bar coding is no longer an option. Is your company ready to implement such a system? If it has not already done so, what can you do? If you are looking at such systems, how should you proceed? What are your best options? What challenges lie ahead? How much will such systems cost?

Those are just a few of the questions which will be addressed
at TMTA’s upcoming quarterly meeting scheduled for March 8, 2011.

The meeting will take place at the Markham Convergence Centre
located at 7271 Warden Avenue.

Keep checking this website to get the details.