AIM North America Creates UDI Committee for FDA UDI Proposed Rule

Cranberry Township, PA – December 13, 2011 – AIM North America (NA), the association for Automatic Identification and Mobility in the North America region, looked at the current trends in the healthcare industry and recognized that there was a need for a forum to address technical issues and questions surrounding the FDA’s proposed rule of Unique Device Identification (UDI) from end users.

In addition, the AIM NA members participated at the last Unique Device Identification (UDI) for Post Market Surveillance and Compliance Public Workshop, September 12-13, 2011 and the UDI Conference, November 30 – December 1, 2011. After that meeting, the AIM NA board of directors agreed with the major manufacturers of medical devices and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that an AIM NA committee be formed to direct industry technical questions is needed and beneficial to the healthcare industry.

The goals of UDI and SNI (Standard Numerical Identifier) are similar and look to do the following for overall public good:

·              Reduction of medical errors

·              Identify compatibility issues of procedures, protocols, and equipment

·              Improved medical device reports (MDRs)

·              Identify and reduce product counterfeiting

·              More efficient purchasing, reimbursement and supply chain management

·              Enhance medical device asset utilization

·              Enhance in post-market device surveillance

·              Support recall of medical devices

AIM North America is uniquely positioned to lead the appropriate technology discussion in both RFID and Data Matrix to compliment GS1 Healthcare or Health Industry Bar Code (HIBC) discussions. AIM NA UDI Committee has the mission to provide a single place for implementers of UDI to get the answers they need on AIDC technology.

AIM NA has appointed Ken Koldan chairperson for the inaugural term. Mr. Koldan, New Business Development Manager at FLEXcon and AIM NA Board of Director, has shown in the past to be an excellent leader and facilitator to new ventures in AIDC. “Ken brings tremendous business experience and additional breadth of expertise to the slate of AIDC. His willingness to invest to advance the automatic identification and data capture in the healthcare industry is commendable.” said Don Ertel, Chairperson of AIM North America.

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About AIM North America

AIM North America is the industry trade association that represents the Automatic Identification and Mobility sales channel in the US, Canada and Mexico. AIM North America provides marketing and educational resources to assist resellers, systems integrators, solutions providers, manufacturers, and distributors in growing their Automatic Identification and Mobility sales. AIM North America is a chapter of AIM, Inc., the worldwide authority on automatic identification and mobility for nearly 40 years.

For more information, contact the AIM North America office at One Landmark North, 20399 Route 19, Suite 203, Cranberry Township, PA 16066, telephone +1 724.742.4473, fax +1 724.742.4476, or visit www.aim-na.org.