Pharmacy Sector Engagement

GS1 Canada along with the Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada (ISMP Canada) and the Canadian Patient Institute (CPSI) have reached a consensus to use GS1 bar codes as the standard format for labeling medication packaging in Canada.

To this end, the three organizations are working collaboratively to advance the Canadian Pharmaceutical Bar Coding Project – combining their respective expertise and outreach to the healthcare community in support of an improved Canadian patient safety environment.

As part of this consensus, the three organizations have agreed to the following:

• Leverage GTINs to identify products and their specific attributes.
• Use ECCnet Registry as the single source of truth for pharmaceutical (Rx) and over-the-counter (OTC) products.
• Rx and OTC manufacturers to complete loading their product data into ECCnet Registry and become RX2 certified by September 1, 2010.
  

Learn more about GS1 Canada’s healthcare sector strategy.