The healthcare industry actively implements GS1 standards to achieve transparency, visibility and accountability in the supply chain of drugs and medical devices, with a focus on patient safety. GS1 India works closely with the global healthcare community bringing together all stakeholders, namely, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors, group purchasing organisations, hospitals, pharmacies, logistics providers, governmental and regulatory bodies, and associations.
A registry of hospitals and medical day-care centres, in the health insurers and Third-party Administrators network (TPA). Addresses of registered hospitals are geo-coded with the GLN (Global Location Number), preventing duplication errors and achieving visibility and credibility.
Benefits of ROHINI
- Enables faster insurance claim processing
- Improves hospital visibility & authenticity
- Prevents insurance fraud caused due to fake hospital information
To enhance patient safety, regulators are directing healthcare stakeholders to implement automatic data capture technologies, unique identification, track & trace, and product recall systems. The use of GS1 standards enables this through the unique identification of supply chain elements and interoperable systems.
GS1 standards enable compliance with various domestic as well as international regulatory requirements. This includes traceability requirements issued by the USFDA, EU FMD, NMVO, and BHRA-Anvisa, the Ministry of Health in Nordic Countries, Ukraine, Egypt, Iran, and many others. On the domestic front, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) accepts GS1 barcodes for pharma exports. Procurement guidelines of state health departments and other regulatory bodies direct drug manufacturers to have a QR code on their drug packaging.
NIFH was set up in September 2021 and brings together industry stakeholders to discuss the current supply chain issues and solve them through collaboration and adoption of GS1 standards. Its members constitute hospitals, online pharmacies, and pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, like TATA 1mg, Cipla, Netmeds, AHPI (Association of Healthcare Providers – India), Abbott, and Apollo Hospitals, all working together with the objective of strengthening patient safety.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with the objective of improving the health & safety of patients and bringing transparency in the healthcare supply chain, directed the top 300 pharmaceutical brands to affix a QR code for improved drug traceability and authenticity. The Gazette directed the inclusion of the following drug information:
To know more, read the full article published on ET HealthWorld.
