Blogs
September 15, 2020 / July 2, 2024 by Intelliguard
GS1 is a not-for-profit organization that develops and maintains one set of global standards for business communications. The organization is best known for developing the global standards for the barcode. Today, GS1 barcodes are scanned more than six billion times every day. These standards ensure that individual items sold and purchased globally are accurately identified every time their GS1 barcode is scanned. The organization includes members such as Amazon, Google and Walmart.
In health care, GS1 is a critical component in ensuring patient safety and supply chain efficiency. Specifically, GS1 is the standard used worldwide on pharmaceutical products to comply with drug supply chain security guidelines. By creating a digital thread and set of global standards, health care providers have a universal language that traces products from the manufacturer to the patient, identifies counterfeit products, facilitates effective recall management, and supports clinical processes. Additionally, GS1 goes beyond barcodes to set standards for every identification mechanism, including setting Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) standards.
Hospitals are continuously challenged with disconnected systems and siloed workflows, meaning now more than ever, they need a unified solution to eliminate the manual drug scanning that results in data inaccuracies and potentially fatal medication errors. RFID has become this solution for the health care industry and having one RFID standard is imperative and lifesaving. As an example, GS1 standards for RFID enable much tighter control over the drug supply chain, a driving factor for government agencies such as the FDA to promote the use of RFID tags on packages to help identify counterfeit drugs.
Medication manufacturers are no strangers to the benefits of RFID for tracking their products and the benefits of following GS1 standards to ensure their customers everywhere can identify their products. Recently Fresenius Kabi, a leading producer of generic injectable medications launched their +RFIDTM medication product portfolio, which features Smart Labels embedded with RFID technology. To enable their RFID Smart Label program, Fresenius Kabi is partnering with IntelliGuard to track, trace and manage RFID-enabled medications.
In order to facilitate full interoperability and compatibility, Fresenius Kabi’s tags will be the first pharmaceutical tags to adhere to GS1 global standards for RFID. IntelliGuard is proud to partner with a company that also champions the need for unified standards to support pharmaceutical product identification, supply chain efficiency and improved data accuracy.
Following all GS1 requirements for RFID technology compliance, Fresenius Kabi’s +RFID™ solution alongside IntelliGuard’s technology establishes easy traceability and assures Fresenius Kabi tags are readable in the hospital and throughout the entire supply chain. Available next month, these RFID-powered Smart Labels will improve the efficiency, safety and visibility of supply chains across physical and digital channels. Together, we’re leading the charge in enhancing the accuracy and transparency of medication distribution and adopting global standards for hospitals and supply chains across the country.
Interested in what this partnership means for you? Reach out to info@ig.solutions and connect with the IntelliGuard team for more insight.