In a rapidly changing world, healthcare faces unique challenges – from meeting new sustainability requirements to ensuring patient safety and efficiency. This blog post is a summary of our webinar “The future of healthcare: Visionary collaboration in medical devices” that took place in November. The aim is to give you an insight into how digital traceability, interoperability and sustainability solutions are reshaping the healthcare sector.
During the webinar we listened to Staffan Olsson from GS1 Sweden, Peter Johansson from Norrlands University Hospital, Krister Arlinger from Registercentrum Västra Götaland and John Helin from Zebra Technologies, who together talked about how technology and collaboration are the key to success. Below is a short summary of the speakers’ presentations and if you want to know more about this, you can watch the webinar here (in Swedish).
Digital product passports and EU sustainability rules
Staffan Olsson, Head of Public Affairs at GS1 Sweden, gave a comprehensive insight into the new EU sustainability regulations and how they will affect medical devices. His presentation particularly highlighted the importance of digital product passports, which will soon become a requirement for many product categories in the EU.
The Ecodesign Regulation, adopted in summer 2024, is a framework legislation aimed at making products more sustainable. It will enter into force in stages and include requirements for digital product passports to document a product’s entire life cycle. This means that information on material selection, production, use and recycling will be available in a digital format, requiring traceability.
Staffan stressed that although some medical devices are not prioritized or exempted from the regulatory framework, there is still a significant impact for the industry. For example, products such as implants and advanced medical devices may need to comply with these requirements.
To meet these traceability challenges, Staffan highlighted the importance of interoperability at several levels:
- Technical: Systems must be able to communicate with each other seamlessly.
- Organizational: Processes between actors, such as buying and selling processes, need to be harmonized.
- Semantic: A common terminology is essential to ensure that data is interpreted in the same way by all parties.
He concluded by stressing that the industry has already made great progress, but that investment and cooperation are still needed to meet the new sustainability requirements.
Digital traceability for patient safety
Peter Johansson, business developer and operating room nurse at Norrlands University Hospital, and Krister Arlinger, IT strategist at Registercentrum Västra Götaland, shared their experience of how digital traceability can improve patient safety and optimize the management of medical devices.
Traceability in practice
Peter explained that traceability of implants and other medical devices is crucial to ensure that the right product is used for the right patient. This is particularly important in critical care situations, where quick access to accurate information can be life-saving.
He highlighted the importance of having systems that enable real-time data collection and sharing. By digitizing traceability, healthcare providers can not only reduce the risk of mistakes, but also create a more efficient and safe care chain.
Technology to support care and safety
Krister went on to emphasize that IT structures need to support interoperability to ensure a smooth flow of data between different actors and systems. He also highlighted how traceability not only strengthens patient safety, but can also be used to analyze and improve healthcare processes. This allows hospitals and healthcare organizations to become more efficient while meeting high safety standards.
Together, Peter and Krister painted a picture of how digital traceability is not just a technical solution, but a fundamental part of modern healthcare that improves both safety and efficiency.
Technological solutions for traceability and interoperability
John from Zebra Technologies took the audience on a journey through the role of technology in enabling traceability and interoperability in healthcare. He explained how Zebra’s advanced solutions combine hardware, software and standards to create a digital healthcare environment that meets both current and future requirements.
John particularly emphasized the importance of real-time data. Through Zebra’s scanning solutions, healthcare professionals can quickly collect and analyze data on products and equipment. This is crucial for optimizing logistics, ensuring the right product is used and improving patient safety.
Interoperability: the key to success
One of the biggest challenges in healthcare is to create systems that can communicate seamlessly with each other. John highlighted that interoperability is not just about technology, but also about creating common processes and languages between stakeholders. For example, a hospital’s purchasing process must be able to integrate with a supplier’s sales process to ensure that the right data is shared and interpreted correctly.
Sustainability and product passport
John also showed how Zebra is working to integrate digital product passports into its solutions. They are contributing by developing tools that make it easy to scan and update information in the product passports, which meets EU requirements and strengthens sustainability efforts.
When technology meets collaboration
By using digital traceability and common standards, healthcare can address complex sustainability, safety and efficiency requirements. Creating interoperable systems and clear processes will be a key part of future developments. When technology and collaboration are combined in the right way, we have the potential to meet the needs of the future and create safer and more sustainable care for all.
Author: Olivia Karringer, Client Manager, GS1 Sweden
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Olivia Karringer, Client Manager, GS1 Sweden