Safe, efficient care starts with simple scan: 36th Global GS1 Healthcare Conference in New Delhi

The event witnessed and welcomed regulatory bodies, international organisations and more than 330 participants from around the world

GS1, organised the 36th Global GS1 Healthcare conference in New Delhi, India, from November 5-7, 2019, following the theme of safer, more efficient care starts with a simple scan. This unique event witnessed and welcomed regulatory bodies, international organisations and more than 330 participants from all around the world.

In her opening remarks Ulrike Kreysa, Senior Vice-President Healthcare, GS1 said, “The worldwide challenge of providing better care, with greater efficiency, for every patient has led to increasing activity in pharmaceutical traceability, supply chain, hospital management and UDI regulation. GS1 plays a leading role in these processes and our global conferences are an important platform to share experiences and knowledge.”

Ravi Mathur, CEO, GS1 India in his welcome address said, “This 3-day conference provides an excellent opportunity for Indian pharmaceutical and medical device companies, regulatory bodies, hospitals and medical professionals to hear on global developments in healthcare from distinguished speakers from across the world and to share their own experiences as well.”

The plenary session on the Day 1, delivered a wealth of information with very productive discussions on a number of issues related to enabling and enhancing patient safety through track and trace of medicines, medical devices etc.

In his keynote address at the inaugural, Dr Vinod K Paul, Member (Health, Nutrition & Gender), NITI Aayog, India informed of the Ayushman Bharat – world’s biggest healthcare initiative which provides healthcare coverage to more than half a billion people in India. Statistically, 1/3 of an individual’s average income in our country gets spent on medical expenditure for her/himself and her/his family, driving the individual into debt. The Ayushman Bharat scheme aims to provide a comprehensive and integrated family healthcare system and increased access to healthcare in the country. In just its first year of implementation, over 5.6 million have benefitted from the scheme.

Dr Paul also stated that India needs to align and integrate with GS1’s philosophy on benchmarks, standards and the notion of one and connected world for commodities, quality assurance, patient safety, supply chain fidelity along with a desire to work together to ensure that patients in India are treated in hospitals which are safe.

Speaking at the conference on Indian Track and Trace Systems for Exports, Tripti Nakhare, Senior General Manager- Regulatory Affairs, FDC, a forerunner in manufacturing and marketing of Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) and Ophthalmic said, “In India, DGFT guidelines ensure serialisation and barcoding for medicine export market whereas it is currently it is voluntary for the domestic market. There is a huge market for counterfeit medicine in the country, to eliminate that what needs to be ensured is the security of the supply chain end to end. We see authentication is easily possible in a controlled supply but to an end user, it still remains a challenge. To do away with counterfeit products, consumer awareness is essential. We are actively seeking innovation to make this end to end safety possible.”

On the second day, the discussions revolved around the hospital working towards better quality of care and efficiency by Professor Sir Terence Stephenson, Nuffield Professor of Child Health, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, UK; Raghavan Rajagopal, Ex-CEO, Insurance Information Bureau of India, India and others. The day also featured the special think tank session for regulators from around the world.

Raghavan Rajagopal, Ex-CEO, Insurance Information Bureau of India, India in his session on Hospital Identification for mediclaim process – ROHINI highlighted that, “Linkage between the information provided to insurance regulators and primary input sources is missing along with lack of Hospital ID complications and a two credit credible registry of hospitals for the benefit of the stakeholders involved in the health insurance industry. To address these challenges ROHINI was launched in 2015 with essential support from GS1 India to address medical malpractice. The interoperability possibility of the system made it possible for the system to be adopted for the Ayushman Bharat Scheme by the Government of India. The eventual goal in our minds is one national grid for healthcare in the country.”

On the third day, the discussions focussed on Unique Device Identification Systems. The session UDI regulation in India highlighted that Unique Device Identification (UDI) of the medical device will be effective from January 1, 2022 as per Rule 46 of Medical Devices Rules, 2017. The system is intended to provide single, globally harmonised positive identification of medical devices through distribution and use, requiring the label of devices to bear a globally unique device identifier based upon standards comprising of Device Identifier (UDI-DI and Production Identifier (UDI-PI).

It also highlighted the advantaged it poses for the Indian healthcare industry including faster discovery of faulty medical devices, faster recalls, reduction in medical errors, reduction in counterfeiting, better assessment of device performance and improved inventory management.

Serving as a foundational source of information, the event addressed track and trace of medicine through adoption of barcode tech and GS1 global standards, delivering quality and affordable healthcare by hospitals, through universal and unique identification of medical devices with a special think tank session of regulators from over 35 countries worldwide to develop and harmonise standards in unique identification of medicines, their authentication and their uniform legislations which can significantly enhance patient safety worldwide.

The conference concluded with an invitation to the 37th Global GS1 Healthcare Conference in Paris, France.