The healthcare industry and technology are constantly intertwining as medicine needs to not only become smarter but also more efficient. You may have seen QR codes in plenty of commercial campaigns, but that same barcode technology is now being used in medicine.
Sanofi Pasteur became the first vaccine company to launch the new technology back in December 2011. There are already vaccines with the technology available, but Sanofi will now be bringing that technology to six more vaccines in the coming year. Here are the vaccines along with their expected rollout timeframes.
Adacel (Tetanus Toxoid, Reduced Diphtheria Toxoid and Acellular Pertussis Vaccine Adsorbed) vaccine
Fluzone (Influenza Virus Vaccine) unit-dose vials
Daptacel (Diphtheria and Tetanus Toxoids and Acellular Pertussis Vaccine Adsorbed)
Tenivac (Tetanus and Diphtheria Toxoids Adsorbed) vials
IPOL (Poliovirus Vaccine Inactivated) in multi-dose vial presentation
Pentacel (Diphtheria and Tetanus Toxoids and Acellular Pertussis Adsorbed, Inactivated Poliovirus and Haemophilus b Conjugate (Tetanus Toxoid Conjugate) vaccine
Sanofi Pasteur became the first vaccine company to launch the new technology back in December 2011. The barcode is designed to reduce medical errors and assist healthcare providers in documenting vaccine information in patient records with greater accuracy by giving them access to more product information. Two-dimensional barcodes are able to contain more data such as lot numbers and expiration dates than was possible in previous standard linear barcodes.
"Accurate information reduces errors, meaning greater safety for the patient and potential savings for the physician through better management of their vaccines," said David Greenberg, M.D., senior director, U.S. Scientific and Medical Affairs, Sanofi Pasteur. "With the implementation of this new technology, physicians will benefit from having fewer manual steps in the vaccine management process in their practice."
Along with Sonifa, the American Academy of Pediatrics is working to train physicians and other professionals in the medical field on how to use 2D barcoding with their electronic medical record system.
Edited by
Jamie Epstein
