A Cambridge company has acquired technology to improve the traceability of implants.

Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX) has bought the ‘Beep N Track solution from Implanet. The acquisition of the medical device traceability engine enhances GHX’s ability to trace implantable devices from product purchase to point of use.

The deal comes on the back of controversy around the use of industrial grade silicon in PIP breast implants in the UK and France.

The GHX implantable device supply chain solution will continue the company’s commitment to developing industry solutions that allow providers and manufacturers to jointly automate shared business processes for greater efficiencies.

The GHX solution will capture data from product purchase to product usage at the point of care, creating capture capability for compliance, while enabling accurate patient costing, as well as purchasing and inventory tracking.

Managing implantable devices is a largely manual process laden with lost revenue, inadequate purchasing controls, lack of data for value analysis, and excessive labour and inventory costs.

Based on its extensive research GHX believes that better management of physician preference items (PPI) clinical, operational and financial processes can help lower supply chain costs, improve staff productivity, and provide significant customer information and safety benefits.

Beep N Track’s traceability solution records near real-time medical device and implant data from creation to point of use. Designed to work with a variety of mobile hardware, as well as bar code and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) capture devices, Beep N Track helps with recall management, paperless electronic filing, device traceability, stock management, regulatory compliance, order management, procedure validation and inventory management.

The data provided by Beep N Track is transformed into actionable information, allowing more efficiency, security and protection for suppliers and providers.

Bruce Johnson, CEO and president of GHX, said: “The healthcare market is losing more than $5 billion every year due to the inadequacy of current solutions in the implantable device supply chain.

“When we talk with our customers, who span the entire healthcare marketplace from suppliers to providers, the need for an implantable device solution is top of the list.

“They tell us that an end-to-end solution that automates and links the entire implantable products supply chain will save money and eliminate waste. This is precisely what GHX has been doing for the past 12 years in the medical-surgical market. This is an opportunity to help the industry in a way that is a perfect extension of our current mission.”

Jason Hale, Managing Director of GHX UK, added: “Traceability has been a growing concern in the industry and recent controversies have highlighted the urgent need for technological solutions that provide end-to-end visibility of implants critical to patient safety and quality of outcomes.

“In addition to these drivers significant efficiency savings can be realised by streamlining and enhancing the healthcare supply chain. At a time when the NHS has been tasked with finding up to £20bn of savings by 2015, this is a real shot in the arm for directors of finance and heads of procurement.”

GHX in the UK is already actively involved in projects to improve traceability of implantable medical devices. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is currently conducting a pilot to build track and trace of heart valves used at the Trust.

Chris Slater, director of procurement at Leeds Teaching Hospital, said: “At Leeds we are now able to trace heart values from the moment they are demanded – through a purchase order sent out by our automated procurement system, linked to the GHX inventory solution – to the moment they are used in theatre, including logging in patient records.

“There are multiple benefits for the Trust and the patient. We are able more accurately to capture costs against procedures and patients, and in the event of product issues or recalls, we have the records to enable accurate communication with the patient and prompt corrective action.”

The decision taken by GHX in the US to add the Beep N Track solution to the product portfolio will enable GHX to drive traceability of implantable devices more effectively and across national borders.

Boasting the largest footprint in healthcare supply chain management, GHX connects more than 1,500 healthcare providers in Europe, as well as providers in the US and Canada, with the suppliers from which they purchase the majority of their medical-surgical supplies.

It is owned by major players in the healthcare industry, including Abbott Exchange, Inc.; AmerisourceBergen Corp.; Baxter Healthcare Corp.; B. Braun Medical Inc.; BD; Boston Scientific Corp.; Cardinal Health, Inc.; Covidien; C.R. Bard, Inc.; Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.; GE Healthcare; HCA; Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc.; McKesson Corp.; Medtronic USA, Inc.; Owens & Minor; Premier, Inc.; Siemens; University HealthSystem Consortium; and VHA Inc.