REPORTERS Notebook

Supplier News—A study conducted by Gladson Interactive, a provider of product images for the consumer goods industry, last month revealed that 90 percent of the more than 200,000 products examined contained at least one error in either product height, width or depth dimensions. Significantly, nearly 1-in-5 products had errors of greater than 25 percent.

These dimensional errors in the Product Information Masterfile are a leading factor in store out-of-stocks, a major cause of consumer dissatisfaction, the company reported. “Based on our findings, there is a high probability that most planograms are never set as intended in the first place due to these product measurement inaccuracies,” stated Mike Spindler, Gladson chief executive officer.

Moreover, inaccuracies at the product-item level were found to be as costly to demand-chain applications as case-level inaccuracies were to supply-chain applications and a significant hindrance to the long-time industry goal of data synchronization.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition last month announced that it is sponsoring new research among healthcare professionals to better understand their personal use of dietary supplements and how it may impact the way they counsel their patients about dietary supplements as part of its “Life…supplemented” advertising campaign.

Steve Mister, CRN’s president and chief executive officer, noted that because of the disparities among definitions of dietary supplements, instruments and populations surveyed, more questions have been raised than are answered. “At this stage, it’s impossible to say with certainty whether the personal use of supplements by healthcare professionals correlates to their recommendations to patients.”

Results of the survey, which was fielded during September, are expected to be released in early November.

Bayer Healthcare last month announced in Europe the introduction of two wireless blood-glucose meters, the results of which can be transmitted wirelessly to the patients’ insulin pumps or to a hospital’s central data processing system.

“The addition of these two wireless meters—Contour Pro and Contour Link—to our business has given us a new strategic focus,” stated Roberto Parotelli, head of the European Diabetes Care Division of Bayer HealthCare. “Their complementary features will make a significant contribution to improving safety for people with diabetes.”