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The Healthcare Supply Chain Association’s (HSCA) Committee for Healthcare eStandards (CHeS) today announced its endorsement of national standard organization GS1 US’s new web-based application for standardized product attribute definitions. The GS1 US Attribute Explorer is a centralized repository that can be accessed by both commercial suppliers and purchasers, and which provides globally standardized attributes and definitions – giving suppliers a streamlined method of identifying relevant attributes for their product to industry purchasers, and empowering purchasers through accurate, real-time data.
“HSCA and our member group purchasing organizations (GPO) are committed to modernizing and reducing costs in the healthcare supply chain, supporting global standards, and ensuring patient safety,” said HSCA President and CEO Todd Ebert, R.Ph. “The GS1 US Attribute Explorer empowers both suppliers and providers with the standardized data they need to get products to patients, and help move products efficiently through a modern supply chain. It is a win-win for all sides of the healthcare supply chain.”
HSCA has collaborated with GS1 US to incorporate its Total Visibility Project data into the application. The Total Visibility Project is the product attribute standardization system of HSCA’s member GPOs that establishes the common, minimum set of product attributes that member GPOs require to consider a product for purchase. By incorporating The Total Visibility Project’s standards into GS1 US Attribute Explorer, healthcare suppliers have a centralized means to identify and present the common product attributes required by GPOs – saving time, manpower, and cost on the supplier end. GPOs and the healthcare providers they serve – including hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and surgery centers – are provided with the accurate and timely data necessary to make smart purchasing decisions that avoid inefficiencies like duplicative orders and labeling errors. The GPO members of CHeS seek practical solutions for the implementation of global data standards to enhance supply chain efficiencies, provider cost management, and patient healthcare outcomes.
The GS1 US Attribute Explorer builds upon the work of GS1’s Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) – a worldwide, web-based system that connects participating companies all over the world, ensures their data is standardized and certified for global sharing, and updates all participant databases in real time. The GS1 US Attribute Explorer complements the power of the GDSN system by providing one centralized, easy-to-use user-interface for finding attributes.
“This collaboration is a significant step forward for the healthcare industry,” said Greg Bylo, Vice President of Healthcare at GS1 US. “The Total Visibility Project effort continues to support adoption of standardized attributes, offering supply chain partners a single source of truth for product data that improves supply chain efficiencies and ultimately, patient safety.”
“Total Visibility establishes the minimum criteria for sharing product information between the supplier and the provider. When shared through the GDSN, the Total Visibility Project attributes will also create the means to bring product data from the supply chain into the clinical application and ultimately into the patient’s electronic health record,” added Ebert.
