Cook Medical, a healthcare products manufacturer based in Bloomington, Indiana, announced that it plans to adopt a new supply chain standard that will simplify global trade. According to a press release by the company, Cook Medical will assign GS1 Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) to its product line. All products sold on the North American continent will be assigned GTINs.

GTINs are part of a product identification scheme similar to barcodes. With GTINs, manufacturers, shipping companies and healthcare providers can work under a unified system.

The GS1 standard was created in response to non-standard identification systems. In the past, many manufacturers used different numbering or identification systems for their products. A lack of unified standards led to shipping inefficiencies and issues with product identification. With GTINs, manufacturers, shipping companies and providers can quickly and easily track the production, transport and utilization of devices.

Dave Reed is VP of operations at Cook Medical. In prepared remarks, he said, “We think standards make sense for health care and for our business.” He continued, “The lack of a common language for identifying products and the lack of clean data in health care make it difficult and costly to do business. More manufacturers and healthcare providers will benefit from using a standard like GS1.”

GS1 is a non-profit dedicated to the adoption of global standards. GS1 comprises more than one million companies around the world.

References

www.cookmedical.com/newsDetail.do?id=7735