Read the Conversation
Conversation highlights:
- GS1 UAE is educating healthcare stakeholders such as manufacturers, agents, and hospitals about UDI to improve patient safety and enable proper batch recalls
- The organization serves as an intermediary between regulators and industry, working with Emirates Drug Establishment, marketing authorization holders, and agents to ensure seamless transitions.
- GS1 UAE has developed a trusted data enhancement project that maps product codes with clinical databases and extracts leaflet information into digital formats.
- The UAE is becoming a reference market for healthcare standards implementation, with delegations from Japan and Belarus visiting to study their pharmaceutical serialization system.
- Partnerships span the entire healthcare ecosystem, from federal regulators to individual hospitals, with the majority of pharmaceutical companies in the UAE working with GS1 standards.
EF: Could you tell us about the current landscape in the UAE and the current priorities on your agenda?
MU: GS1 UAE is a not-for-profit organization that works with industry, for industry, providing global standards and technology-neutral services and solutions. One of our primary focuses is enabling interoperability across the healthcare ecosystem through the adoption of GS1 standards. Our core purpose is to support the industry in implementing these standards and achieving their intended benefits, particularly in the areas of patient safety, batch recalls, and end-to-end traceability.
In 2017, we began working with Dubai Health and CCAD to implement a robust system of standards that enable unique identification, accurate capture, and automatic sharing of trusted and verified pharmaceutical product information. By 2026, the scope of our work will have expanded to include Emirates Health Services, Dubai Health, the Emirates Drug Establishment (EDE), Oman’s Ministry of Health, and the Bahrain National Health Regulatory Authority. With EDE, we have an ongoing pharmaceutical serialization project that was piloted in 2022 and continues to progress successfully. The next phase will focus on Unique Device Identification, for which the guidelines are currently in the initial development phase.
For 2026, GS1 has three main goals:
- First, our focus is on UDI awareness and readiness. Our goal is to ensure that Unique Device Identification is widely understood across the UAE. As UDI is not yet regulated by the Emirates Drug Establishment, we are taking a proactive approach to educate the industry, particularly hospitals. Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi is currently one of the few hospitals in the UAE implementing UDI, and they are already seeing measurable benefits in terms of time and cost savings, improved recall management, and enhanced patient safety. Later this year, we are planning a healthcare event that will bring together major hospitals and key healthcare stakeholders to discuss effective UDI implementation. We are also extending these efforts beyond the UAE and across the GCC, in close collaboration with our member organizations in the region.
- Second, we are focused on enhancing BrandSync, our master data-sharing portal that enables us to exchange product data with our healthcare partners that span across federal and governmental entities. We're further automating BrandSync, so marketing authorization holders can upload data seamlessly, rather than through manual processes. This will streamline the entire process end-to-end for our healthcare regulators, marketing authorization holders, and distributors.
- When you think of GS1 UAE, you should think of trusted data. We've implemented our own trusted data enhancement project. We work with manufacturers from the first step to ensure data accuracy, so that when a product is scanned or a code is searched, the information is accurate. We've mapped products with other codes relevant to UAE stakeholders, like SNOMED CT codes, DOH codes, and DDC codes. We've also extracted entire leaflets into digital format, so information is no longer stuck in PDFs. We're working toward a chatbot repository where you can ask questions, such as whether a medicine is pregnancy-safe, without having to read through leaflets. Through these initiatives, we are moving toward innovative, future-focused solutions that not only align with current technology trends but also go beyond them.
EF: What are the wider benefits of implementing GS1 standards across hospitals beyond batch recall and patient safety?
MU: Through our close work with Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, I can outline the key benefits of GS1 implementation through UDI. The first major advantage is supply chain visibility and end-to-end traceability. Hospitals should be able to track a product from the moment it enters the facility until it is administered to the patient. This helps reduce costs and improve product traceability because there are many instances where products get lost or stuck in locations that can't be tracked. It also ensures the right product reaches the right patient. Right now, hospitals follow many manual procedures, including manual data entry. These processes shouldn't be applicable in 2026. There's modern technology like RFID, which the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi has recently implemented. With a single scan, they have real-time visibility of exactly how many medical devices are in their inventory. This eliminates the time-consuming manual processes that are still common in healthcare facilities.
EF: How do you assess the data infrastructure in the UAE from GS1 UAE's perspective, and what needs to happen to leverage data for patient benefit?
MU: From GS1 UAE’s perspective, the UAE has a strong healthcare data foundation, supported by clear national digital health ambitions, advanced regulatory frameworks, and growing adoption of global standards such as Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), Global Location Numbers (GLNs), and Serialized Shipper Container Codes (SSCCs). To truly leverage data for patient benefit, there must be consistent use of standardized, trusted master data, system-to-system automation rather than manual data handling, and integration of product and supply chain data into clinical workflows. Strong collaboration among regulators, healthcare providers, and industry stakeholders, enabled by GS1 standards, will allow data to flow seamlessly across the ecosystem, improving patient safety, traceability, operational efficiency, and ultimately health outcomes.
EF: How do you assess the willingness of the public sector to collaborate, and how are you working together to advance the sector?
MU: For pharmaceutical serialization, the work started with engaging stakeholders involved in the EDE initiative, particularly Marketing Authorization Holders. We conducted regular feedback sessions to gain visibility into their experiences, understand their challenges, and develop the best possible plan to move forward. We also worked closely with the GS1 Healthcare Leadership Team at the global office to ensure our guidelines were aligned with GS1 standards and global best practices.
Last year, we held an educational seminar on UDI for agents in the UAE, with Mecomed and other Medtech stakeholders in attendance. Our aim is to understand what the industry wants and to serve as an intermediary, working alongside EDE to establish the best approach. The way forward is collaboration among all parties and understanding the issues that manufacturers of all sizes, big or small, would face. This same approach will guide the implementation of UDI as well.
EF: How is the system evolving, and what will the landscape look like in five years?
MU: In five years, we should lean more towards automation and have a simple system where, for example, a product is scanned, and all information is available. It should be implemented across the UAE, and we should continue to be the innovators for the GCC and across the world to understand how to successfully implement these systems. The UAE is known for striving to implement the best and most advanced systems and being a leader in the industry. GS1 UAE stands as the role model for other GS1 member organizations. Earlier this year, GS1 Japan and a team from Belarus visited us to see how we implemented a successful pharmaceutical serialization system, how the BrandSync system operates, and how distributors use just one barcode. They wanted to understand the challenges faced by the industry and how GS1 UAE addresses them, so they can apply these learnings in their own countries.
EF: Is there anything else you'd like to discuss or any final message?
MU: While GS1 UAE may be a small organization in terms of employee numbers, we operate on the scale of a large organization, with projects spanning federal, governmental, and private sectors across multiple industries. We conduct regular webinars, one-on-one sessions, and large-scale events to support our members, partners, and the wider industry. We continuously enhance our systems and actively seek to understand the challenges the industry faces so that we can provide meaningful support.
We prioritize direct engagement with our partners by visiting pharmaceutical manufacturing plants and meeting with agents to understand their processes and identify opportunities for simplification. It is important for us to know their challenges firsthand.
Our final message is that we do not wait for direction to innovate. We remain several steps ahead by proactively developing ideas and working with our partners to bring them to life. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that the healthcare ecosystem in the UAE continues to be among the strongest and most advanced globally.
