RFID Pharmaceutical Tracking: From Manufacturer Through In Vivo Drug Delivery

Abstract

Advances in medical technology rely heavily on the collection and analysis of measured data to facilitate patient diagnosis and business decisions. The healthcare industry, particularly pharmaceuticals and diagnostic processes, has an ongoing need to improve item tracking and data collection to improve the quality of care while reducing cost. The remote, non-invasive characteristics of radio frequency identification (RFID) can facilitate the information needs of healthcare without imposing additional burden onto the patient or the staff. Properly deployed RFID enabled devices can provide convenient and accurate data for disease diagnosis, evaluation of prescription noncompliance, and identification of medication dosage errors. This paper describes an overview of the concept of an all-encompassing RFID pharmaceutical tracking system that begins with compliance documentation from the drug manufacturer and continues through the confirmation of patient compliance by capsule extraction from the bottle into a pill case and ultimately ingested or inserted into the body. This system also facilitates compliance with Food and Drug Administration proposed e-pedigree requirements and provides data for healthcare decision making. An introduction to healthcare trends is provided in order to communicate the need for such a biocompatible RFID pharmaceutical tracking system. Also presented in this paper is the overall scope of research and in vitro test method to develop biocompatible RFID tag components for use in a “pharmaceutical supply chain system” beginning with the manufacturer, continuing through distribution, and ending at the point of interest within the patient’s body.

Improving the Logistics Operations of the Hospital Pharmacy Using a Barcode-Rfid Identification System

“…Nevertheless, barcodes present several disadvantage such as low storage capacity, lecture problems and long manual processes. RFID technology has great potential to improve supply chain efficiency [37] because it allows real-time and automated multi-lectures. Despite its technological superiority, the adoption of RFID technology is not as fast as many researchers had expected [37].…”

“…RFID technology has great potential to improve supply chain efficiency [37] because it allows real-time and automated multi-lectures. Despite its technological superiority, the adoption of RFID technology is not as fast as many researchers had expected [37]. The technical limits of RFID technologies, such as cost, lecture interferences and lack of standards, do not allow mitigating the strength of barcodes.…”

Using AUTO-ID technologies in the Cuban drug logistics system to increase its safety and efficiency

“…La utilización de la tecnología de Identificación por Radio Frecuencia [RFID, Radio Frequency Identification] en el sector de la salud también se ha visto incrementada en los últimos años. La integración de la tecnología RFID para el seguimiento farmacéutico permite optimizar la entrega y la logística del producto, su seguridad y la supervisión de su administración (Jones, Henry, Cochran, & Frailey, 2010). En la producción y logística, las principales limitaciones de la tecnología óptica (códigos de barras lineales o bidimensional), en comparación con la de RFID (Guido, Mainetti, & Patrono, 2012), están enfocadas en que limitan la velocidad de operaciones de las líneas de envasado y en las lecturas en las operaciones logísticas.…”

Cell/tissue processing information system for regenerative medicine

“…Meanwhile, in the food industry, raw material/product management technology based on radio frequency identification (RFID) has been studied and introduced to rationalize manufacturing/distribution management (D'Hont, ). In the pharmaceutical fields also, the introduction of RFID has been considered to rationalize raw material management and ensure traceability (Otoshi et al ., ; Moosmann, ; Jones et al ., ). This paper describes a novel information system specializing in cell/tissue processing products used for regenerative medicine, in order to ensure appropriate manufacturing/quality control, thus saving energy for manufacturing/quality management and manufacturing high‐quality products, in preparation for the time when regenerative medicine is put to practical use in the near future.…”