Most hospitals using RAIN RFID have proven it works. Far fewer have made it work everywhere. Medication tray management alone is running in more than 1,000 U.S. hospitals, yet for most health systems RAIN still lives in isolated projects: a crash cart here, a kit there, each one its own data silo.

That is starting to change. New research from the ASHP Foundation, drawing on 18 health-system pharmacy leaders, finds that RFID is moving toward enterprise-wide, connected systems. Those systems are built on interoperable standards, tags applied upstream by manufacturers, and data that flows into inventory, automation and the EHR (the electronic health record). The gap between a successful pilot and that enterprise capability is where most healthcare RFID programs stall. The health systems that close it first will be the ones that avoid proprietary lock-in today.

So what does it take to scale? This Knowledge Series panel brings together a pharmaceutical manufacturer, a solution provider and a leading children’s hospital to answer that question.

This Knowledge Series panel brings together a pharmaceutical manufacturer, a solution provider and a leading children’s hospital to share what it takes to get there.

What we’ll cover

• Why healthcare is roughly 100× behind retail in RAIN adoption, and what it will take to close the gap
• How tagging at source by manufacturers changes the economics for hospitals and pharmacies
• Lessons from medication tray management, a proven RAIN deployment at scale
• How RAIN and GS1 standards (GTIN/SGTIN and EPC) deliver true interoperability, from source to patient
• Why proprietary tag systems create long-term risk, and how to avoid vendor lock-in
• What comes next: authentication, chain of custody, cold chain and reducing medication errors

Who should attend

Health-system pharmacy, supply chain, perioperative and IT leaders; pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers; distributors; and solution providers, whether you are evaluating RAIN RFID or already scaling it.

Meet the panel

• Gwen Volpe, Senior Director of Medication Technology Programs and Strategic Partnerships, Fresenius Kabi
• Aaron Sundman, Business Development Leader, CCL eAgile
• Craig Lane, Assistant Director, Application & Technical Services, Texas Children’s Hospital
• Paul Elizondo (moderator), Healthcare Community Leader, RAIN Alliance