Arne Rehm, product manager RFID/NFC Solutions at Schreiner MediPharm, explains how smart labels with integrated RFID/NFC chips support digitalisation trends in the pharmaceutical industry.
Smart labels
The current trend towards self-medication puts a stronger focus on the patient. On the one hand, easy and comfortable dispensing of a medicine is becoming more and more important. On the other hand, increasing digitalisation changes usage behaviour and strengthens the well-informed patient. Innovative labels with integrated NFC/RFID technology enable new, interactive applications and thus make an important contribution to assisting the patient. In addition, wireless communication is able to optimise processes, for instance to secure the supply chain or for intralogistics workflows.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) allows for quick, contactless reading and storage of digitised data for a wide range of applications. Due to their thin and flexible construction, RFID/NFC inlays are easy to integrate into labels for medicine containers or medical devices and inconspicuously blend in with the existing design. The smart labels can simply be applied to the primary containers during the production process and offer attractive fields of application, such as counterfeiting protection, interaction with the patient and process optimisation.
In the case of Near Field Communication (NFC), reading is possible within a range of just a few centimetres using an NFC-capable smartphone. Suitable readers are integrated in many mobile phones, thus contributing to high availability and ease of using the NFC functionality. The technology is commonly known primarily due to the wide-spread use of contactless smartphone-based payment. However, it offers new, attractive applications for the pharmaceutical industry and medical device technology as well.
Product and brand protection via digital authentication
Smart labels with integrated NFC technology open up diverse and scalable opportunities to pharmaceutical manufacturers for product and brand protection because easy digital authentication of the respective medicines is possible anytime, anywhere by means of smartphones. Readouts via smartphone provide the user with a clear, readily understandable result that can be complemented by other content such as descriptions of security features or additional information for the patient or physician. For instance, the technology – by means of password protection, signatures or encryption techniques – provides reliable protection against counterfeiting attempts, depending on the respective threat scenario. Pharmaceutical manufacturers benefit from the wide-spread use of NFC-capable smartphones with integrated readers in this context. Whereas reading of NFC labels used to be largely limited to Android devices, it is now also easily possible with current Apple devices using the iOS operating system.
During an online verification, information stored on the chip, the serial number or – in compliance with data protection regulations – even user data, may be sent to a database. This additionally provides the pharmaceutical manufacturer with an option to obtain important information for monitoring the supply chain and avoiding potential grey-market activities.
Fast and interactive access to information
Labels with NFC inlays make it possible to exchange information with the user. While reading the label-integrated chips with an NFC-capable smartphone users receive easy access to important information about their medication, which the manufacturer can update and adjust anytime as needed. For this purpose, data stored on the NFC chip or additional information can be accessed via the internet. Thus, patients or healthcare staff receive extensive background information about the product – from clear identification of the medicine to easy query of the expiry date through to important product details or warnings.
Moreover, a respective NFC label can assist with challenging applications. The pharmaceutical manufacturer can store explanatory videos or audio files on the chip in order to support proper handling and thus therapy success. For instance, video tutorials or interactive step-by-step instructions are particularly helpful in the case of pens and autoinjectors because using them properly often requires several steps in the correct sequence and the handling of such injection aids is not always intuitive.
Label-integrated NFC technology also supports the current trending topic of Patient Compliance Monitoring: taking medications correctly as prescribed by a therapy plan is crucial to the successful outcome of a treatment. By means of mobile apps, patients are reminded to regularly take their medicines and are able to monitor their own usage behaviour. In addition, the attending physician can use the data obtained to adjust the therapeutic regimen together with the patient and/or optimise compliance.
Communication between product and device
However, label-integrated RFID/NFC technology not only enables the interaction between the user and the physician or the user and the manufacturer but also between the product and the corresponding medical device: according to the lock-and-key principle, a product marked with an RFID label and the corresponding medical or laboratory device are able to exchange information in real time. When administering medicines this enhances patient safety and ease of use. The chip assumes control: the lock-and-key principle stands for two parts that have to be precisely matched in order to perform a specific function. In the case of medication, the medical device, for instance a blood pump, reads the data stored on the chip. In the first step, authenticity and shelf life are checked. Afterwards, the information transmitted by the chip assumes control of the device. This principle prevents the administration of falsified or wrong medicines and helps to avoid dosing errors. Via the programming of the label-integrated RFID chip, the reuse and thus abuse of an original container is prevented.
Optimum processes in intralogistics
Consumables or equipment provided with RFID labels are able to optimise processes in the operations of pharmaceutical manufacturers, hospitals, laboratories or in other professional fields of application. Automated inventory management is an example of a possible scenario: due to automatic reading of the removed and stored products, the current inventory is always stored in a database. In addition, modern sensor chips are able to simultaneously monitor the integrity of the label and thus events of first-opening or tampering with a container, among other things. The use of RFID also makes it possible to monitor and control logistics material and product flows in real time: the labels are automatically read at various stations for maximum transparency and concurrent documentation. The processes optimised and automated in this way help to enhance efficiency and process reliability. Manufacturers can directly use automatic and clear identification of their products via RFID technology in their internal processes and, in addition, provide major benefits to their customers and enhance workflows in hospitals, laboratories or blood banks.