In April, Simon King, director, Domino Integrated Solutions Group, discussed how the two-dimensional Data Matrix bar code data carrier recommended by EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations) can provide the foundation of an 'e-pedigree' that tracks, traces and authenticates medicines throughout the supply chain, from manufacturer to patient.
While tackling counterfeiting is usually cited as the main justification for e-pedigrees, reducing medication errors is equally important. According to a 2006 report from the US Institute of Medicine, medication errors harm at least 1.5 million Americans a year and contribute to the $3.5bn annual cost of treating some 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries in hospital.
So it's no surprise that there is great interest in 'point-of-care' solutions that guarantee the 'five rights' that the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) identifies: namely, solutions that enable health care professionals to check whether they are giving the right drug via the right dose and right route of administration to the right patient at the right time.. One such solution, already implemented in some US hospitals, involves using bedside bar code scanners to guarantee the integrity of the supply chain right up to its final stage.
A key feature of any such solution, of course, has to be the application of individual codes at the 'unit dose' level - in other words, printing a unique code onto every single pocket of a blister-pack or packing each dose individually. A barrier to the solution's adoption, however, has been the logistical challenge for hospitals of having to re-package tablets and capsules delivered in bulk by wholesalers. As the US Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society told the FDA, this can be 'complicated and costly, and, worse, it introduces an unnecessary source of potential new packaging errors'.
One way to overcome this problem is to apply the unique codes at the manufacturing stage. The Data Matrix code is versatile enough to incorporate a serialised number such as an EPC (Electronic Product Code) or a SGTIN (Serialised Global Trade Identification Number), and the software exists to generate the numbers at the packaging stage. All that's needed is technology capable of high-resolution, high-speed variable data printing.
Domino's K-Series drop-on-demand technology can do this. Originally developed for the commercial printing market, where high-quality output is paramount, the K-Series is increasingly finding applications in quality labelling and packaging environments. The K200 printer, for example, can print at a resolution of 300dpi and a speed of 90 metres per minute.