Abstract
The key challenge in the Healthcare industry is to trace items from manufacturer to end consumer in the supply chain. The recent fatalities in the food industry led to HR 2751 – the act mandating traceability in the supply chain to ensure quality and safety for the end consumer. In the Healthcare industry, counterfeit drugs pose a major challenge, and may account for 10-30% of the market in developing countries. In recent times, more than 600 medical device recalls were issued for a wide range of items, including implantable devices. This necessitates an efficient healthcare supply chain traceability solution to combat counterfeit drugs and to ensure drug and medical device safety as well as patient privacy. This paper will talk about the challenges related to traceability in Healthcare, and solutions adhering to GS1 standards.
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