At the[PACK]out this week in Austin, TX, industry professionals participated in a sustainability panel, which included talk of eIFUs (electronic instructions for use).
When asked about the challenges around implementing paperless options, the panel—moderated by Jamie Pero-Parker, PhD, sustainability sector lead at RTI Innovation Advisors—focused on three main hurdles.
Regional acceptance: Samantha Smith, engineering director – product stewardship at Medtronic, explained that regional acceptance can be an issue. “We have a good handle on North America, in general. Once you get out into regionality—there’s a bit of a struggle to get the right folks to answer the right questions to get eIFUs in play,” she said. “Then we have SKU proliferation. We don't want to carry a SKU for a high-volume product for too many different countries. We'll want to make sure that we're reducing our inventory so we're not carrying SKUs for several different regions just to have the right IFU. So how can we come up with a hybrid model, so that we can use a limited amount of paper?”
While North America and Europe may be receptive, “once you get out into the smaller regions, they have a lot of regulations and getting those folks on board with understanding” is tough. She said you have to keep asking, “Why do you think you need the paper IFU?” and keep digging with a lot of “whys.” A lot of times, you find out they don't actually need it, she noted.
