As our healthcare system faces increasing pressure to improve safety and efficiency, and to be a world leader in delivering care, for pharmacy this translates into the challenge of keeping medicines safe, using them more cost-effectively and keeping up to date with the latest legislation and technology. Counterfeit drugs are a global problem, and medicines spend is one of the biggest costs to the NHS. Legislation such as the Falsified Medicines Directive will make our pharmacies safer and central initiatives such as the Global Digital Exemplar programme are pushing Trusts to stay ahead of the game in their use of data and technology – Glen Hodgson from GS1 suggests that GS1 standards are key to both.