Focus Areas
The Center for Healthcare Delivery and Policy is focused on the advancement of unique device identifier (UDI) adoption, particularly its implementation and use in US health systems. The UDI is a unique code required on the label of a medical device that provides the data to electronically identify the medical device. Use of UDIs in clinical care, recalls, supply chain management, finance and revenue, adverse event reporting, research, and real-world evidence (RWE) studies elevates accuracy, efficiency, and most importantly patient safety surrounding medical devices. Focus areas include:
- UDI Implementation at the Point of Care
- IT infrastructure for UDI adoption
- Education for UDI adoption
- Approach to Real-world data (RWD) with UDI
- Policy implications
Illustrative Example of a UDI
Related Projects
Evaluation of Uptake of UDIs by Health Systems
The state of UDI implementation was studied among health systems participating in the National Evaluation System for health Technology Coordinating Center research network, a network committed to real-world evidence (RWE) generation for medical devices. This work was accomplished by researchers from Arizona State University, the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine & San Francisco Veterans’ Affairs Hospital, the Kern Center for the Science of Healthcare Delivery at Mayo Clinic, Yale School of Medicine & Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, and Mercy Research. Key findings were that UDI adoption within health systems requires knowledge of and impetus to achieve operational and clinical benefits and that lack of UDI availability significantly hindered RWE studies.
A playbook for health system UDI implementation at the point of care was developed based on review and assessment of the literature on UDI implementation and use as well as input by an advisory group of UDI experts. The goal was to provide guidance for health systems in UDI implementation and to advance UDI adoption in US health care.
- Exploring Unique Device Identifier Implementation and Use for Real-Word Evidence: A Mixed-Methods Study with NESTcc Health System Network Collaborators.
Dhruva SS, Ridgeway JL, Ross JS, Drozda JP Jr, Wilson NA - NESTcc. A Playbook for Health System Unique Device Identifier Implementation at the Point of Care.
Dhruva S, Wilson NA, Ross JS, Gemar L.