Thursday

HSCA Announces ‘Total Visibility Project” to Improve Patient Safety and Increase Accessibility and Accuracy of Medical Product Information

The Healthcare Supply Chain Association (HSCA) today announced the launch of the Total Visibility Project at its annual Expo in Washington, DC.

The new program, which HSCA’s Committee for Healthcare eStandards developed in collaboration with GS1 and the Healthcare Industry Supply Chain Institute (HISCI), is a data synchronization best practice for product information that will improve the accuracy and accessibility of product information available to the healthcare supply chain. As part of the program, suppliers may publish a set of common, minimum product attributes to the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN), which will then be immediately available to GPO hospital and provider members.

“The Total Visibility Project will help ensure that hospitals and healthcare providers have timely access to reliable product information, and that the right product gets to the right patient at the right time,” said HSCA President Curtis Rooney.

To provide hospitals access to accurate product data information, HSCA and its GPO members engage in data synchronization through the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN). The GDSN is an automated, standards-based global environment for the electronic transfer of standardized product information between trading partners. The GDSN helps enable secure, continuous data synchronization over time. The Total Visibility Project will enable an initial one-time publication of product data for all participating GPOs and their hospital and provider members. GDSN Certified Data Pools also play an important role partnering with GPOs and suppliers in assuring data verification and continuous synchronization of updates. 

To read more about the Total Visibility Project, read the HSCA press release here.