AUBURN, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today marks the launch of DoseID, the first member driven industry consortium for the use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology in the healthcare space. DoseID offers best practices for using serialized, RFID-tagged medications to support the quality, performance, and interoperability of tagged drug products as they move through the pharmacy supply chain, from the manufacturer all the way to the patient, across all of the existing systems and software supporting the medication use process.
The DoseID RFID tag certification will be provided by Auburn University RFID Lab’s ARC Program. Founding members of DoseID hail from companies across the industry spectrum including Omnicell Inc., Sandoz, Baxter, Hikma, Nephron Pharmaceuticals, Avery Dennison, Kit Check, MPI Label System and CCL Healthcare.
DoseID brings together industry participants in a way that ensures RFID tagged drugs work in all of the downstream IT systems in hospitals and health systems. DoseID is opening a world of opportunity for interoperability, performance, and tracking of accurate history of medication use so that any industry participant has access to reliable information on each medication dose. Some of DoseID’s concepts have been shown to be successful, with more than 120 million tagged units in the field and a recent pilot with the FDA associated with DSCSA compliance and the 2023 regulations.
“We are thrilled to be working with pharmaceutical industry leaders to introduce DoseID and ensure the standardization of RFID in the healthcare space,” said Dr. Bill Hardgrave, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Auburn University and the founder of the RFID Lab. “After assisting the retail and aerospace industries in fully commercializing RFID for unit-level visibility, we are pleased we can help revolutionize healthcare with those lessons learned.”
The ARC RFID Lab is an established research institute focusing on the business case and technical implementation of RFID in various fields. The ARC Lab has worked with industry groups representing the some of the largest users of RFID technology, including the retail and aerospace industries, to establish rigid standards for performance and interoperability. ARC Lab has served as a third-party RFID certification body for industry for over 15 years, establishing performance and quality specifications that have evolved into standards like the GS1 TIPP standard.
ARC ensures that parties not only meet the certification standards, but that these standards meet the needs of all of the industry players, supporting ongoing quality. Medications tagged at the unit dose with DoseID-certified RFID labels will be open to all automation vendors that wish to use the DoseID standard for searching drug provenance. This assures items like refrigerated drugs with beyond use dating are understood by all parties.
“We are excited to join the DoseID consortium, as these unilateral standards support the vision of Autonomous Pharmacy, a roadmap to develop a zero error, fully automated medication management infrastructure,” said Scott Seidelmann, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Omnicell, a leading provider of medication management solutions and adherence tools for health systems and pharmacies. “RFID standards will provide a framework for a seamless clinical experience, supporting better patient safety.”
DoseID’s RFID technologies build on existing serialization efforts and take drug product performance, reliability, and visibility one step further, down to the item level. DoseID presents a more comprehensive answer to the calls for supply chain modernization first raised by DSCSA. As more companies incorporate RFID tags on external packaging or within the drug delivery format itself, it is critical that RFID technology work reliably and be open to all downstream participants so they can consistently access both existing standards information like the GS1 SGTIN as well as the medication history, including lot numbers and beyond use dates. DoseID also addresses the issues of a mixed environment that encompasses several technology vendors, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and even health-system tagged drugs. With DoseID, all tagged doses can be recognized in all of the relevant systems bringing true interoperability to RFID across the health system.
“Sandoz is committed to driving innovation that improves access to medicines, and we encourage the industry towards RFID technology. We believe this will be game-changing in the hospital setting, and we are proud to be at the forefront as one of the founding members of DoseID,” said Carol Lynch, President, Sandoz Inc. “This collaboration uniquely fits with our goal of creating strategic alliances to ensure patient access to critical, high-quality, affordable medicines when they need them.”
It is only with participation across the entire pharmaceutical supply chain – from drug manufacturers, to inlay providers, to automation vendors and hospitals – that RFID unit-level medication tracking can achieve the DoseID goals of interoperability, reliable tag performance and complete and accurate data. By offering players throughout the supply chain a mechanism for RFID standardization, DoseID certification can ensure optimized performance for end users as well as industry participants. When properly configured, RFID medication tracking systems can help solve the problems that plague the supply chain including shortages, recalls and diversion, while reducing integration headaches that are currently prevalent in siloed healthcare systems.
DoseID’s founding members represent major players from all aspects of the pharmaceutical industry. Current DoseID membership includes pharmaceutical manufacturers, 503b compounding pharmacies, pharmacy automation vendors, and inlay and tag manufacturers. All members will offer products that meet the standards set by the self-governing consortium to ensure interoperability, reliable tag performance and complete and accurate data.
“Reliable, transparent medication supply chains are crucial to Baxter’s priorities of advancing pharmacy efficiency and patient care,” said Sumant Ramachandra, M.D., Ph.D., President, Pharmaceuticals and Senior Vice President, Chief Science and Technology Officer at Baxter. “DoseID is an important step toward modernizing these supply chains, and we welcome the opportunity to help guide the development of medication tracking.”
“Hikma is committed to taking innovative approaches to solve the challenges of the pharmaceutical supply chain,” said Riad Mishlawi, President of the Injectable business unit of drug manufacturer Hikma. “We are glad to join forces with other industry players for such an important initiative.”
“As a longtime believer in the valuable application of RFID in drug product manufacturing, DoseID membership is a must,” said Lou Kennedy, CEO of Nephron Pharmaceuticals. “To date we have manufactured over 20 million RFID tagged-doses in our manufacturing facilities and we are excited to work with fellow groups in the consortium.”
“We are very supportive of the DoseID mission and glad to be part of the founding membership,” said DJ Lee, Global Channel Sales Director of Avery Dennison. “As a world leader in digital identification technologies and RFID production, creating over 30 billion tags to date, we are excited to support DoseID with this crucial initiative for the healthcare industry. We have a long-standing partnership with third party certification group ARC Lab and our experience and R&D capabilities have enabled the innovation of RFID products to support the challenging demands of the healthcare industry.”
“Kit Check’s mission is to bring item-level visibility to drug products, and we are therefore extremely excited to be a part of DoseID,” said Kevin MacDonald, CEO and Co-Founder of Kit Check. “We pioneered RFID use for tracking drug products, and are optimistic about the future of its use in the industry.”
“As a leading player in healthcare labeling, CCL is excited to join DoseID and help pave the way for the future of RFID,” said Pramit Sen, Vice President and General Manager, Labels USA at CCL Healthcare. “With all different aspects of the medication supply chain represented we are enthusiastic about continued innovation.”
“As a leader in RFID labeling in the healthcare space, DoseID membership will be immensely valuable to MPI,” said Shauna Crawford, RFID General Manager of tag manufacturer MPI Label Systems. “With the continued adoption of RFID for drug manufacturing, we are glad to be a part of the group shaping the future of this technology to ensure utmost efficiency and safety.”
To learn more about DoseID and its members, please visit doseid.com.
