EP#8 --- From barcode to bedside: How a Chinese hospital tracks high-value medical devices using GS1 standards

In this episode of SCAN/STORIES, discover how a leading hospital in China is transforming patient care with smarter traceability.At The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, managing high-value medical devices used to be a manual, error-prone process, with delayed deliveries, paperwork overload, and risks to patient safety.Today, it's a different story. By adopting Unique Device Identification (UDI) and GS1 global standards, the hospital has given every critical device a digital identity, enabling real-time tracking from warehouse, to storage, to bedside.Using global identifiers like the GTIN, barcode scanning, and smart storage technology, they’ve built a seamless, data-driven system that reduces errors, accelerates operations, and enhances accountability.This episode shows how trusted data and global standards are redefining healthcare logistics, and why traceability isn’t just a system upgrade, it’s a patient safety imperative.