New global collaboration between GS1 and IHTSDO

The new agreement supports interoperability in healthcare

GS1 and the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization (IHTSDO) have signed a new collaborative agreement that supports interoperability in health information systems globally.

The new agreement ensures that GS1’s Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN) – the global standards for automatic product identification used for patient safety and traceability – and IHTSDO’s SNOMED CT – the global standard that ensures semantically accurate clinical terminology for consistent use across health systems and services – can work together.

This aims to facilitate the link between clinical information in the patient record and the correct product administered to the patient at point of care, enabled by barcode scanning.

We are excited about building on our previous collaborative efforts with GS1 through this new work. This new agreement focuses on concrete projects for linking GTINs and SNOMED CT further support those in the delivery of care to patients and start to demonstrate benefits as early as next year.”

Don Sweete, CEO at IHTSDO

There are four main areas of collaboration specified in the new global agreement, which runs until June 2017:

1. Develop guidance/principles for linking SNOMED CT and GTINs that can be applied at the national/local level
2. Explore options, feasibility and benefits for a technical solution/model at the international level to support local/national linkage between SNOMED CT and GTINs
3. Conduct joint communications about IHTSDO and GS1 standards working together
4. Explore options for education across healthcare communities based on feedback from subject matter experts, but likely focused on GS1 and IHTSDO products and services and collaborative activities

The use of GS1 global standards for product identification and data exchange is critical in addressing today’s issues in healthcare systems and will help ensure patient safety by appropriately linking patient information with accurate product information in all Electronic Health Records.”

Miguel Lopera, CEO and President at GS1

This new collaborative agreement between GS1 and IHTSDO supports interoperability and simplifies the process of linking clinical and product information with patient data within electronic patient records. This will strengthen the global adoption of GS1 standards along the patient pathway to further improve patient safety, increase operational efficiencies and provide greater regulatory compliance.”

Glen Hodgson, Head of Healthcare at GS1 UK