Pharmaceutical Industry Supply Chain Management Kick-off

Index

 July 10 - 11, 2001
Sheraton Ferncroft Resort
Danvers, MA USA

About the Kick-off

At the OMG Technical Meeting in Danvers, Massachusetts, on July 10 and 11, the OMG will kick-off a new initiative, Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Management.  OMG Members and guests from the pharmaceutical industry will launch an effort to speed the standardization of the pharmaceutical supply chain management process. This initiative was established to address the external system interface and integration issues that limit the pharmaceutical industry’s ability to embrace and optimize their traditional- and e-commerce potential.

Objective

The objective of this meeting is to bring together pharmaceutical technology representatives, including general purchasing organizations, pharmaceutical manufacturers, pharmaceutical and medical/surgical supply wholesalers, major pharmacy chains and healthcare providers to begin the process of standardizing the complete, front-end to back-end pharmaceutical supply chain management process using the OMG’s rapid, open, vendor-neutral, consensus-building standardization process and leveraging its existing adopted standards.

Organizer

Organized by OMG Members under the aegis of the OMG Healthcare Domain Task Force and integrating the efforts of both MedContrax-led Pharma Initiative and the RxHub Initiative, this two day meeting will begin with overviews by the organizers. Representatives from the Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA) and National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) will also be on hand to give presentations explaining their roles in these initiatives.

The organizers will also present their research to date on how and why standardizing the complete pharmaceutical supply chain management process is so important to manufacturers, wholesalers, buyers, doctors and patients.   The second day of this meeting will feature technical presentations by OMG Members, which will highlight adopted vertical and platform OMG specifications that are being considered for this initiative.  During the afternoon, attendees are invited to join a number of breakout meetings where all participants are encouraged to share their industry needs and ideas of this initiative.

About RxHub

The three founding partners of RxHub determined that there was value in creating a solution that would advance the efficiencies of the process of prescription writing and dispensing for all stakeholders. With this shared goal, RxHub was developed, an electronic exchange that would link physicians, pharmacies, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and health plans. 

The new system is intended to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of the prescription writing and dispensing process, improve patient safety and reduce costs. A standardized electronic prescription process will increase the rate of adoption by physicians and become a valuable healthcare tool that benefits all stakeholders.

RxHub would serve as an "open utility" and perform three functions:

• Standard Setting - Work with existing standard setting organizations to help establish standards governing the communications and applicable interfaces among the various participants (PBMs, point of care companies, health plans, and pharmacies).

• Personal Identification/PBM Locator Service - Develop and implement personal identification technology that would enable POC applications to specifically identify individuals in order to determine inclusion in participating PBM and health plan databases; and to select and communicate with the appropriate PBM (with specific clinical and coverage information concerning the specific patient) during the prescribing process.

• Connectivity Hub - Serve as a "connectivity hub" through which electronic prescribing communications, including electronic prescriptions, could be communicated between and among physicians using point of care technology, PBMs, health plans, and pharmacies.

About MedContrax and the Pharma Initiative

The Pharmaceutical Initiative was created to streamline the pharmaceutical contracting process by taking advantage of advances in e-commerce technology. The initiative will address external system interface and integration issues that limit the pharmaceutical industry’s ability to embrace and optimize their e-commerce potential. Because many of the problems relate to the contracting process, the trading partners asked MedContrax, an OMG member and leading sales information and contracting network solutions company to participate in the initiative.

The trading partners represent the three major supply chain components: pharmaceutical manufacturer, buying group and wholesaler. The Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA) has been asked to serve as an advocate for its members in this initiative. The trading partners have also received support of the Object Management Group (OMG) and intend on using the OMG process to standardize on currently used and future processes and interfaces. The associations will serve as the conduit for industry and technological interoperability and standardization activities. 

Invitation

The Pharmaceutical Industry Supply Chain Management Kick-off Meeting is being held in conjunction with one of OMG's five annual Technical Committee (TC) Meeting Weeks attended by OMG Members. You are invited to attend the OMG Technical Committee Meeting in its entirety in order to see first-hand, OMG's standards adoption process in action. During a TC meeting week, members apply OMG's open, vendor-neutral, consensus-building standardization process to set industry software standards in Telecommunications, Manufacturing, Human Resources, Biotechnology, Healthcare, and other industries.

To attend the Pharmaceutical Industry Supply Chain Management Kick-off Meeting and the OMG TC Meeting, please use the TC Meeting Registration Form.

To attend the Pharmaceutical Industry Supply Chain Management Kick-off Meeting ONLY, please register using the Pharmaceutical Industry Supply Chain Management Kick-off Registration Form.

For more information about the Pharmaceutical Industry Supply Chain Management Initiative, contact Nicole Glazen, by phone at +1-781-444-0404 x150 or by email at healthcare-interest@omg.org.