UNICOM is engaged with the Global IDMP Working Group (GIDWG), created by EMA, FDA and WHO-UMC. The 3rd GIDWG Stakeholder Group Meeting took place this week and the results are being reported during the public meeting today. Five GIDWG projects are currently underway: global substances, global dose forms, global strength expression, global HL7 FHIR specs, and an operating model for the generation and maintenance of global PhPIDs. Read more about those projects

The findings on global ambiguities around substance, dose form, and strength, as reported by UNICOM WP8 and WP9 and discussed in WP1 Communities of Expertise, are now being addressed by Business Rules that GIDWG is developing, building upon the solutions that UNICOM identified. This makes it possible to actually request and use global identifiers which are quality controlled and managed at a global level. Testing will be undertaken with a wide variety of products from different countries across the globe. Of course, the participation of WHO-UMC in UNICOM, in various work packages and webinars, has made a huge difference!

Several end-to-end use cases have been identified to demonstrate the value of having a global PhPID. Especially the cross-border use case is being addressed in close collaboration with UNICOM in HL7 FHIR Connectathons, which will continue. This links in to our story of Elena from WP8, the Demonstrator in WP1 and the support for the MyHealth@EU as provided by WP5, WP6 and WP7.

We look forward to also demonstrate the technical feasibility for end-to-end use cases on pharmacovigilance and drug shortages in the future, even beyond the UNICOM project. It is good to know that GIDWG will continue to pursue the aim to ensure that any medicine and what it contains can be accurately identified anywhere in the world.

UNICOM wants to thank in particular Isabel Chícharo and Panagiotis Telonisthe from the European Medicines Agency, Ron Fitzmartin from FDA and Malin Fladvad & Julia Nyman from Uppsala Monitoring Centre