As a commercial organisation you will constantly be looking for ways to manage and reduce costs by removing unnecessary steps from key processes or automating information flows to increase efficiency. Implementation of barcode technology is a proven way to do so. As a supplier to healthcare you will also be under pressure from your customers to manage/reduce costs: The coalition government: Our programme for Government: NHS (10th May 2010) “We will guarantee that health spending increases in real terms in each year of the Parliament…” but we know savings need to be made (Department of health stated “…£15-£20 billion per year by 2013/14…”)!

Healthcare organisations have numerous, and increasing case study examples of these benefits through the use of AIDC technology to refer to; and, for the NHS in England, the Department of Health publication Coding for Success recommends “both industry and NHS adopt the GS1 system of coding standards and sets out an action plan that supports both NHS and industry”, and it is increasingly likely that GS1 compliance will be a criteria in NHS tenders.

And also, if your industry/trade association has not already undertaken a pilot (e.g. EFPIA’s “Product Verification Pilot…”) they have issued guidance (e.g. Eucomed‘s “Guidance on Bar Coding for Medical Devices” and “Risk-based implementation of Unique Device Identification (UDI)”).

Can you afford to ignore the benefits of using AIDC?