Thank you, Peter O'Halloran — it was an absolute #honor to have you! Your #leadership, #vision, and commitment to #advancing global standards in #healthcare are just so truly inspiring. The path to #interoperability and harmonisation is essential to realising the full potential of #digital #health, and your #dedication makes such a real impact. #Together, we can #all make a difference with just a simple scan! 👏 Join Peter and many others who have already started this journey - the #future of healthcare starts #now! #GS1Healthcare #PatientSafety
◆ Chief Digital Officer, Australian Digital Health Agency ◆ 2024 Technology Leader of the Year (itnews)
What does Wrigley's Juicy Fruit Gum have to do with healthcare? I have partnered with GS1, a global standards development organisation for over 15 years to improve the safety, quality and efficiency of healthcare. The first barcode ever scanned was on a pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit Gum in June 1974 (just over 50 years ago) in Ohio USA and since that time barcodes and the GS1 standards that underpin many of them have become commonplace in our everyday lives. In healthcare, GS1 standards are used extensively to identify people (such as staff or patients), places (locations - from an address to a specific tray on a shelf in a clinical supply room) and things (such as documents, parts and medications). In healthcare standards speak, we often refer to them by the acronym for the relevant standards such as GLNs (for Global Location Numbers that identify locations) and GTINs (for Global Trade Identification Numbers that identify individual items). However, we should never forget the key place that these standards and the use of them play in ensuring that the right person and right item go together in the right place - which results in safer and more timely care. The ability to provide traceability - ie what happened to a specific patient (such as the implant of a medical device or the administration of a medication), where and by whom is critical. You may see this in operation in a hospital facility where a patient wristband is often scanned before a medication pack is scanned and then the patient is handed a medication - that is global standards at work to improve the quality of care that each of us and our loved ones & friends receive. I recently had the pleasure to catch up face to face with GS1 Global's Vice President of Healthcare, Géraldine Lissalde-Bonnet and key members of her team such as Claire Clarke and Martin FitzGerald to discuss how GS1 Healthcare can further work with governments to use GS1 standards to improve the safety, quality and efficiency of healthcare globally. As always, we each came away with a list of actions to further advance this cause. In Australia, the Australian Digital Health Agency (and our predecessor agency NEHTA) has worked with GS1 Australia for over a decade to implement these standards locally. To understand how they are used in Australia, why not head over to our Standards Catalogue at https://lnkd.in/gFm_ncJJ or check out some of the case studies on the GS1 Healthcare website at https://lnkd.in/gX375W5h . My call out today is simple - if you work in healthcare, or you a vendor who supports the healthcare sector - are you using all of the global standards to improve the safety, quality and efficiency of care? If not, why not? If you don't know where to start, email us at standards@digitalhealth.gov.au