In a news release today, the Premier Healthcare Alliance, which represents more than 2,200 U.S. hospitals and 63,000-plus other healthcare sites, announced upcoming presentations its senior executives will be making around the country in the coming days and months. Premier, you’ll recall, was the first group purchasing organization to endorse the use of GS1 supply chain standards.
All of the various upcoming presentations seem interesting and useful, but one in particular stands out for its specific relevance to GS1: On September 23, Joe Pleasant, FHIMSS, senior vice president and chief information officer, will discuss processes in healthcare building on the GS1 traceability system at the Health Level Seven, Inc. 23rd Annual Plenary and Working Group Meeting in Atlanta.
The news release doesn’t offer a link or additional information about Health Level Seven so I’ve added it here for your convenience. HL7 is a really big deal in the Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Clinical Information Systems (CIS), and geneeral Healthcare Information Technology (HCIT) space. And, here’s how they describe their mission: Health Level Seven, Inc. (HL7) is the global authority on standards for interoperability of health information technology with members in over 55 countries. HL7′s vision is to create the best and most widely used standards in healthcare.
I wrote last year on the strategic value of any convergence of HL7 and GS1 here and here.
GHS and Regulatory Labeling Challenges in the New Era 
