The growing availability of manufacturer-enabled smart labels with radiofrequency identification (RFID) tags, along with increased interoperability between tagged medications and other pharmacy technology solutions, is paving the way for more hospitals and health systems to adopt RFID to track medications within their institutions.
“At AmerisourceBergen, we recognized pretty early on that there is a broad lack of standardization for RFID-enabled products,” said Dustin Roller, the vice president for innovation product development. “We have leaders adhering to the GS1 standards for universal recognition of RFID tags without a back-end interface, but others have back-end tags that follow their own standards. You have a choice on the software side: Do you want to allow your customers to make use of RFID tags from other vendors or not?”
Mr. Roller underscored the risks of taking a siloed approach to product development. “Proprietary RFID solutions that limit their capability to only tags that have been commissioned or enabled by their system are too restrictive to propel innovation and collaboration in this space,” he said. “We all have to open our doors a little bit in terms of collaboration to provide the best possible solutions.”