The Hindu Business Line : Barcoding in health sector can save lives

THE recent incident of a hospital in the National Capital Region implanting an expired valve into a patient's heart has once again highlighted the lack of standardisation in the healthcare system.

Tampering of medical devices leading to adversities could become a thing of the past if healthcare companies and blood banks use bar codes or radio frequency identification tags.

Internationally, when a patient is wheeled into a hospital, a bar-coded wristband provides all the essential medical information relating to his condition. Similarly, hospital equipment, medicines, medical devises, blood banks and even patient records are coded.

"However, in India, adherence to standard bar-coding on products, making data on each individual product available in real time in the healthcare sector, is negligible. We are talking to healthcare companies, urging them to put in place such a system," said Mr Ravi Mathur, Chief Executive Officer, EAN India, a not-for-profit standards organisation under the Commerce Ministry.

According to Mr Mathur, the industry has in principle agreed to adopt the system but the conversion has been very slow. "Hospitals would have to work as a group to convince medical devices manufacturers to put bar codes. Pharmaceutical companies are already using bar coding on products being exported to other countries. But this would have to be extended to others in the chain," he said.

One of the main reasons for lack of standardisation is the absence of any firm mandate from the drug regulators of the country.

"We have had meetings with the Drug Controller General of India on this issue. But it is the State Food and Drug Administrations that would have to take a call on this issue. The US FDA has already made it compulsory for all imported products to have bar codes," Mr Mathur said.

Further, the investment for adopting this technology is minimal. With demand for such systems on the rise, prices will only decline. They have dropped from a few dollars some time ago to as little as 30 cents per bar code per package.

While a large portion of the FMCG industry has taken to bar coding, it is more important that the healthcare industry also adopts it to reduce errors in treatment, Mr Mathur said.

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