GS1 at Medtec 2003

GS1 (formerly EAN International) at Medtec
- the European Healthcare Initiative targets the medical devices industry to reduce risk through certainty

Stuttgart – 17th March 2003

GS1, the global supply chain standards body, is exhibiting at Medtec as a key element of its European Healthcare Initiative marketing programme. The standardisation of medical device identification, bar coding techniques and associated electronic commerce messages through the use of EAN.UCC standards, is a key objective for the Initiative and Medtec is seen as a strategically important event to maximise its market exposure.

The European Healthcare Initiative was very recently launched by the European organisations of GS1 (formerly EAN International) to significantly increase adoption of GS1 information standards – the EAN.UCC System – in the healthcare market across Europe. Primarily concentrating on the supply chains to hospitals and community pharmacies, GS1 is convinced that the wide-spread adoption of their global standards of identification, bar coding and electronic commerce messaging in the European healthcare market, can significantly cut supply chain costs, reduce risk to patients and help improve patient care. The medical device sector, and particularly the sub-assembly and device manufacturing processes, is a fundamental target for the Initiative.

Fredrich Dahlman, formerly CEO of GS1 Sweden and a member of the European Healthcare Initiative Supervisory Board, explained: “As the leading medical devices event for manufacturers, we wanted to take a high profile at Medtec. The identification of medical devices, and their sub assemblies, at the earliest possible point in the supply chain process, is essential for pro-active track and traceability throughout the supply chain, from manufacturer to patient. Use of the EAN.UCC standards have a unique capability to not only bring increased certainty and efficiency in the medical device supply chains throughout Europe, but also to reduce patient risk and improve patient care. We have a unique market proposition for the European healthcare industry and Medtec offers us the ideal channel to discuss it.”

GS1 (formerly EAN International)
The mission of GS1 and the Membership Organisations, is to take a leading role in establishing a global multi-industry system of identification and communication for products, services and locations based on internationally accepted and business led standards.

The objective is to improve the efficiency of integrated logistics while contributing added value to partners involved, as well as to consumers.

GS1 is a global organisation of over 100 independent national bodies -the Member Organisations - representing 145 countries. They support the needs of nearly one million member companies who conduct more than 5 billion transactions per day in 23 sectors of industry (including healthcare) using the standards.