The Hospitalog Asia 2018 conference took place in Singapore frim 4 to 6 July with a leading faculty of industry experts providing actual case studies of best practices in healthcare logistics. This a regional conference specifically designed for healthcare automation, logistics and materials management professionals. GS1 Global and GS1 Singapore were invited to be part of the event in a very engaging way.

GS1 Singapore Team’s Mr Andy Siow, Manager (Technical Standards and Services and Healthcare Industry Sector Lead), as well as Ms Joy Lee, Manager (Membership Services, Training and Support), kick- started the event in a Pre- conference workshop with the Introduction to GS1 Standards for Healthcare. The team shared how the healthcare sector can benefit from the implementation of GS1 Standards in the healthcare supply chain, to ensure maximum interoperability and traceability in the healthcare supply chain locally and globally.

At the main conference, Mr Lawrence Koh, Principal Consultant, DSI Academy Singapore (Formerly Executive Director Supply Chain Operations, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.), shared a case study on the implementation of GS1 standards. From his presentation, delegates learned how and why a Cleveland Clinic implemented GS1 standards in the caregiving environment, how they focused on the positive effect of workflow and caregiver’s time, traceability and the overall gains. In addition, he shared on what were the challenges and how Cleveland Clinic was able to draw the attention of the local health authorities and distributors to change the landscape of the healthcare supply chain to adopt a single, global standard based system.

Ms Tania Snioch, Director of Healthcare from GS1 Global Office from Brussels. She shared further with the audience the importance of the adoption of GS1 standards in the Healthcare supply chain and she shared many more successful case studies from around the world on “Helping to ensure patient safety using unique identification and barcoding.”

The event ended with a site visit to Farrer Park Hospital, which GS1 Singapore had the opportunity to go and further engage with some of the participants.