1. Prioritize Plant-Based Proteins

The trend towards plant-based proteins continues to grow as new health benefits of limiting our consumption of animal proteins are reported. The good news? You don’t need to go fully vegetarian or vegan to get the benefits of a plant-based diet. Just focus on adding foods like beans and legumes, grains, nuts, seeds, and vegetables to your meal while decreasing animal protein portions for a more plant-forward experience. You can also participate in Meatless Mondays for a full day of plant-based eating. Small changes can help you reap the many benefits of a plant-based diet, including improved heart health and lowering your risk for chronic diseases. 

2. Eat Mindfully 

You may have heard about the growing movement towards intuitive eating, which can be a great addition to your wellness goals this year. This practice encourages you to slow down, savor your food, and be more present at mealtimes. By doing this, you can listen to your body’s needs and hunger cues to prevent overeating and improve digestion.  

3. Focus on Balance 

Add a variety of foods to your diet by incorporating vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, healthy fats, and whole grains in your meals. Consuming a balanced diet with more whole foods and less prepackaged snacks or highly processed items can help you get more of the nutrients you need like fiber, vitamins, and minerals to support your health. Remember, while a healthy diet is important, enjoying your food and spending time with people around a meal is valuable for balance as well.  

4. Stay Hydrated

Keeping our bodies hydrated can often be overlooked. Dehydration can lead to fatigue, headaches, and other symptoms. The feeling of thirst can also be mistaken for hunger, so be sure you are incorporating a lot of fluids into your diet. Aim for at least 8 cups of water daily, but more than that if you’re active. Consuming water-rich foods like watermelon, cucumber, and celery can also help you stay on track with hydration too!  

5. Add More Fiber 

It is recommended that we consume between 25-35g of fiber daily, however most people don’t meet this goal. Fiber is a type of indigestible carbohydrate that is mostly found in plant sources.  There are both soluble fibers in foods like nuts, beans, and chia seeds, and insoluble fibers in whole grains, leafy greens, and fruits with edible skins such as apples. It’s important to get both types of fiber in your diet for maximum health benefits. Fiber has been shown to help lower cholesterol to keep our hearts healthy, aid in controlling blood glucose levels, promote a healthy digestive system, and keep us fuller for longer periods of time to help prevent overeating. 

6. Stay Active 

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week. Being active can be just as important to your health as the foods you eat. While you may love to hit the gym or take an exercise class, we know that these might not fit your lifestyle. Find other ways to move your body instead. Perhaps go for a walk during your lunch break, take the stairs, enjoy a trip to the park— the list is endless! Regular exercise and movement are known to boost your mood, support weight management, and strengthen muscles. 

7. Manage Stress 

Nutrition and exercise goals are always popular New Year’s resolutions, but don’t forget about other areas of your health like stress management. Chronic stress can lead to poor mental health, overeating, and physical health problems. It can be difficult to manage stress when we are always busy with work and family responsibilities. Try incorporating brief moments in your day to practice yoga, meditate, listen to relaxing music, or even take some deep breaths. Exercising like we mentioned in the previous tip can also help you unwind and manage stress too. 

8. Plan and Prep for Success 

Meal planning and prepping ahead can go a long way towards setting yourself up for success in your health and wellness goals. Meal prepping doesn’t need to be super complicated or time consuming either. Set aside a few minutes each week to make a meal plan, food shop for the week, and prep what you can. Focus on simple prepping like cutting up all the fruits and vegetables ahead of time so it is ready when you’re starting to cook. You can also batch cook grains like rice or quinoa in advance for easy reheating later in the week.  

9. Reduce Certain Nutrients 

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend consuming less saturated fat, added sugars, and sodium in our diets as they can contribute to poor health outcomes. Saturated fats are primarily found in animal-based foods like meats and dairy — so all the more reason to incorporate our first tip of more plant-based proteins. For example, added sugars are sugars added to foods during processing, like syrups and sweeteners, and do not include naturally occurring sugars present in fruits, vegetables, and milk. Sodium is typically found in processed or packaged foods and should be limited to about 2,300 mg per day. Also try to reduce your intake of sweetened beverages, processed snacks, and meats to support your long-term health. 

10. Be Realistic 

You might be super motivated this year to change some habits and follow some of these tips, but it’s also important to set realistic goals that are specific and attainable for you to maintain throughout the year. Don’t set vague goals like “eat healthier.” Instead, set actionable steps that you can work towards. Use our tips and adjust them to create your personal goals. For example, if you want to consume more plant proteins, perhaps your goal is “consume a plant-based meal 3 times per week.” Making a list of achievable goals will help you feel confident and stick to them. 

Commit to a Healthy New Year! 

Focus on sustainable changes this year to set yourself up for long-term success. Don’t forget to celebrate the small wins to help you stay motivated towards your health and wellness goals.  

*This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Please consult with your doctor or healthcare provider to ensure that these recommendations are right for you.

The post 10 Nutrition & Wellness Tips to Start the New Year!  appeared first on Syndigo.

SUCCESS STORY

Ypsomed Injects Precision into Product Data Synchronization

Ypsomed, a leader in medical technology, specializes in cutting-edge insulin pumps and injection systems. Since 1940, this Swiss-based company has been serving both B2B and consumer markets through its “Delivery Systems” and “Diabetescare” divisions. Operating in offices across 26 countries it has a global distribution network of pharmacies, medical stores, and online platforms.

Working with Syndigo, Ypsomed was able to solve its product information management challenges.

With Syndigo’s Syndication solution, they achieved these positive outcomes, including:

• Improved data quality for accurate and up-to-date information
• Faster time-to-market for introducing new products
• Cost savings due to new automation capabilities

Synchronization Obstacles

Before Syndigo, a comprehensive solution for product information and master data management, digital shelf analytics, syndication, and enhanced content, Ypsomed’s management of product information and image data was a significant challenge. Manual updates and fragmented systems led to time-consuming, error-prone processes. Ensuring consistent, up-to-date data across all channels was a constant challenge, causing delays and mistakes. The heavy manual workload also lacked a centralized solution to streamline operations to meet the strict labeling regulations for medical devices across multiple countries and databases, such as EUDAMED, added to the complexity.

To cure these ailments, Ypsomed sought a comprehensive data management and synchronization solution to address these needs. They chose Syndigo to centrally manage product information and seamlessly integrate it with various sales channels and databases specific to medical technology.

The Treatment Plan

With clear goals set—enhancing data management efficiency, improving data quality, and reducing time-to-market—Ypsomed implemented Syndigo in phases. The integration included their ERP/PIM system, e-commerce platforms, and CMS, with a special focus on connecting to various medical tech databases, ensuring smooth data synchronization across all relevant platforms.

With the implementation of Syndigo, we can revolutionize our product data management. The time savings and increased efficiency allow us to bring new products to market faster while maintaining a very high standard of data quality. The seamless integration with various medical technology databases is a decisive factor for us, enabling us to ensure the consistency of our data across all channels and thus significantly increase customer satisfaction.

Christian Baschung

Process Manager Sales & Service

Healthy Outcomes

Since introducing Syndigo, Ypsomed has achieved significant improvements in data management. One benefit has been time savings. Automation and centralized management have drastically reduced the time spent on data maintenance, speeding up the update process and freeing up resources for other important tasks.

Another major advantage is faster time-to-market for new products. With optimized processes in place, Ypsomed can now launch products more quickly, providing a competitive edge in the fast-paced medical technology industry. This efficiency allows them to respond rapidly to market demands and customer needs.

The new streamlined processes have reduced operational costs and made better use of Ypsomed’s resources. The decrease in manual errors has further contributed to these savings, ensuring more efficient and cost-effective operations.

Better data quality has also been a key outcome, with consistent and up-to-date information available across all channels. Accurate data is crucial in the highly regulated medical technology field, and Syndigo has helped Ypsomed meet these high data standards.

Finally, customer and partner satisfaction has increased as a direct result of having consistently accurate and reliable up-to-date product data, fostering closer relationships.

Achieving Data Excellence

Ypsomed plans to extend the use of Syndigo, incorporating more modules to optimize processes further. Long-term, they look forward to continuously boosting efficiency and customer satisfaction including expanding automation options and deeper integration with existing and future systems.

The post Ypsomed Injects Precision into Product Data Synchronization appeared first on Syndigo.

Without a modern PIM that syndicates, these manufacturers are left scrambling to figure out the latest requirements themselves. Moreover, they need to manage each individual submission on their own and deal with tedious back-and-forth requests for updated or accurate content as circumstances evolve.

At Syndigo, we have a better option: our Syndigo Platform, the golden product record for global UDI submissions.

Click on the image below to download the infographic.

The post How Syndigo is the Golden Product Record for Global UDI Submissions appeared first on Syndigo.

Different rules in different countries also pose unique challenges to medical device companies. While some of the product information requirements are the same, there is often a good deal of variance.

Producing unique product records for each UDI standard globally can become an overwhelming task. And with more and more countries developing their standards in the coming years, manufacturers often find themselves at a loss, trying to predict what these requirements will be and how regulators want to receive them

Through our work with Healthcare clients, Syndigo identified three key questions that many are asking:

1. How are companies successfully creating, updating and sharing UDI data?
2. What systems, processes and tools are helping manufacturers satisfy the data needs of both regulators and customers?
3. Where can people go to get educated, find best practices and drive efficiencies?

Much like consumer goods, hardlines and other verticals, a successful UDI management model in healthcare should ensure the supplier’s data is centralized. This provides for a single product record that can be either updated or added to. Rather than creating a separate storage location for each country’s UDI, manufacturers can ingest data into a single place before distributing to recipients.

A model for this is to submit information through Syndigo, and then out to recipients. For the Healthcare industry Syndigo collects each country’s UDI requirement sets (like GUDID in the US or EUDAMED in Europe), and brings them into our CXH platform. By digesting this data and creating rule sets and attributes, any content in CXH can be compared to UDI requirements.

With content completeness scoring and other measures suppliers can understand where their products meet specifications and where they need more information. This is an incredible time-saver for suppliers, who can receive feedback and make changes in near real-time.

Recently, Syndigo hosted a Healthcare UDI webinar to give healthcare industry suppliers a look at how to answer those tough questions, highlight a real-world example of how one supplier improved their UDI submission effectiveness and share some expertise around how to build a better overall content program.

Duplicated effort is a common concern across suppliers. Syndigo’s CXH platform can deliver real efficiencies for clients. And the single product record is strengthened as new UDI standards are added.

REQUEST A RECORDING

The post Three Big UDI Challenges for Healthcare appeared first on Syndigo.

In the healthcare space, however, we understand this may feel less familiar. But, if anything, the gravity of accurately managing product data should be even more clear in healthcare. After all, the majority of these products have a direct impact on people’s health: things like heart valves, ventilators, vital signs monitors, surgical instruments, catheters, etc. When you think about this, it’s no surprise why Unique Device Identification (UDI) compliance rules are so stringent.

It’s clear that a single record of truth is needed for medical device manufacturers to manage all these details effectively. Think less about the big, fancy platform itself and more about the capabilities that platform provides: a repository of information, updates tracking, shared access to a single data point and so on.

That said, let’s reframe the way we think about PIMs in healthcare. Below are three benefits to using Syndigo’s platform as your healthcare PIM:

A single product record to meet multiple regulatory requirements

It’s a known challenge to keep up with all the different requirements of regulatory agencies like the FDA, while of course meeting standards of GUDID, EUDAMED and others. Not to mention, those regulatory requirements evolve and there are fast-approaching deadlines to keep track of for each of them. In fact, it’s estimated that around 10 regulatory agencies will release new UDI requirements over the next five years!

Syndigo’s CXH platform not only maintains all of this information, it validates the submitted product data for accuracy and consistency—again, to ensure these important devices are compliant with any given regulator.

Direct connection to a GDSN data pool

On top of UDI compliance, GS1 standards are of course another key element that medical devices need to take into account. Fortunately, Syndigo is also a GDSN-certified data pool, so manufacturers can kill two birds with one stone using CXH: get the product data accurately loaded and managed, and have it syndicated wherever necessary—in accordance with all required standards (GS1 included!).

This continues to empower medical device manufacturers to keep the submission process streamlined and actionable with one single record of truth (and importantly, one single platform).

Full visibility into the product lifecycle

Nobody wants to hit submit and then lose track of all progress. That’s why CXH keeps manufacturers in the loop with transparency across the product’s lifespan. CXH enables manufacturers to monitor submission status in real time, receive alerts on requirement changes (along with the ability to make those tweaks as needed) and syndicate the UDI data to any channel, giving a holistic view of the process to feel confident about.

Every manufacturer deserves to have that level of knowledge into the medical devices they release. Especially when it comes to healthcare, a modern PIM that takes the weight off your shoulders is pivotal. With the life-changing outcomes that are possible in healthcare, why wouldn’t you want to have a system that can handle your PIM needs plus syndication and analytics ones as well?

The post Why a Modern PIM is a Must for Medical Device Manufacturers appeared first on Syndigo.

There is a dizzying array of requirements for listing product information in the healthcare field. And even as standards organizations have worked to define what is needed for Unique Device Identification (UDI) data, there are multiple requirements globally.

Many of the medical device suppliers are beginning to feel the pinch.

In the US, the UDI standard (known as GUDID) was set to be mandated in September. With the pandemic, this deadline has been extended; however in the coming few years, as many as ten additional regulations agencies globally will release new and unique UDI requirements as well. Suppliers are looking at ways to manage these multiple requirements.

While the deadline extension is some relief, many suppliers are not yet adequately prepared. According to a whitepaper published by KPMG¹ late last year in relation to EUDAMED, the EU standard, nearly 48% of survey respondents had not yet developed a strategy, due to continued confusion understanding the requirements. For those with a plan, 25% would continue on a manual process, while the other quarter planned either to leverage their existing IT infrastructure or create new infrastructure.

The concept of harmonizing content across an industry adds cost and effort to the producers.

For example, FDA requirements for GUDID in the US link to a 22-page downloadable manual on how to capture and deliver product information (with an additional 11 page download in the event you wish to edit your item content)!

And to sell or distribute to healthcare systems or group purchasing organizations (GPOs) globally, there are additional layers of complexity – including some regulators (such as China and South Korea) that require local language, which may not work with basic spreadsheet tracking. More important, the resources spent on capturing, validating, maintaining, and syndicating information are being taken away from other tasks.

Alternatively, working with a solution provider like Syndigo may help you get there much more effectively.

SYNDIGO UDI PROCESS

Rather than repeating your UDI ramp up multiple times for different international standards, by using a certified solution provider you can meet rapidly changing healthcare regulations from a single Product Record. Using our robust Content Experience Hub (CXH) platform, product information is captured and validated, and is then distributed to any (or all) regulatory standards required by your data recipients.

Ongoing maintenance is another headache that Syndigo can manage. If continual updates or changes make it hard to keep track and keep up, it would be easier (and more productive) to maintain the content in an online format that updates from our platform to data recipients as scheduled.

Working with a product information platform like CXH can be more than your ‘insurance policy’ for data accuracy and compliance. Rather, it can be an essential part of your overall data management program, ensuring accurate, verified product information for your specific data uses.

The post UDI: What’s Your Strategy? appeared first on Syndigo.