Barcodes and the Effects on the Medical Field
CIS 207
February 4, 2013

Barcodes and the Effects on the Medical Field
Barcodes have been an important part of almost every major field. They have been around for almost 75 years, first developed at Drexel University on October 7, 1952 by Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver. The attained the U.S. patent number 2,612,994 for the current barcode we see today (“Inventing the Barcode”, 2011). Barcodes are an old technology but have still passed the test of time by being a vital part of hospital or healthcare facility operations. The barcodes have just recently seen a major spike in the use of them to track records.
According to “Barcode Technology in Healthcare” (2013) section of Wikipedia,” barcode technology in healthcare is the use of optical machine-readable representation of data in a hospital or healthcare setting”. In 1995, the Bar Code Medication Administration (BMCA) was created by a nurse at the Colmery-O’Neil Veteran Medical Center in Topeka, Kansas. It was marketed to many facilities by the Department of Veteran Affairs. The “Barcode Technology in Healthcare” (2013) goes on to say that recent published reports in the early 2000’s have shown a high rate of medical errors and increased healthcare expenses (“Barcode Technology in Healthcare”, 2013). These errors along with the ever growing need to cut costs were the driving force behind the use of barcodes in the healthcare industry. Barcodes are now realistic and applicable solutions that have had a high priority placed on them to reduce errors and promote patient safety.
In 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled that barcodes must be used on certain human drugs. Any drugs that were manufactured on or after April 26, 2006 must have had a bar code on them. They did not recall any drugs made before that date and allowed distribution of the unmarked drugs until the existing supply was exhausted ("Bar Code Label Requirements for Blood and Blood Components", 2011). Barcodes are used to mark things such as blood, urine, medicine, surgical instruments, and even patients by way of an arm band. These barcodes hold data that help doctors to quickly and efficiently treat patients and eliminates the possibility of human error. These uses cut cost by eliminating unneeded surgical supplies, reduced information errors, and eliminate rework for nurses and laboratory staff.
There are concerns as there are with the implementation of any technology. There may be limitations and concerns that may or may not result from the use of barcoding technology. There could be limitations as far as how much information a one dimensional bar code can hold compared to a two dimensional bar code can handle. It could slow down processing time when trying to deliver medicine to patients and also the ability for the scanner to read the barcode on the small pill packages. It could be a combustible situation if you are trying to provide medicine to a group of mentally ill patients. These cause serious concerns for the safety of patients and staff.
Regardless of the possible concerns of this technology, the good outweighs the bad. The barcode is seen as a mature, reliable technology and will be continued to be adopted within the healthcare industry to improve the quality of patient care ("Barcode Technology in Healthcare", 2011). Radio-frequency identification is the only possible future competitor for barcoding. RFID will not ever eliminate barcodes from the healthcare industry but, will collaborate to make a combined system. The reason for this is that barcoding is cheaper than RFID and it is ideally suited for tasks in which a human is stationary and objects are moving ("Barcode Technology in Healthcare", 2011). Barcoding technology in healthcare will eventually begin to shift over to the use of 2-D symbols to accommodate size restrictions and the growing need for large amounts of data. This is already becoming a reality with the use of mobile phones and is bound to play an important role in the development of mHealth or mobile health.

Reference
Bar Code Label Requirements for Blood and Blood Components. (2011). Retrieved February 3, 2013 from http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/AdvertisingLabelingPromotionalMaterials/BarCodeLabelRequirements/ucm133136.htm
Barcode Technology in Healthcare. (2013). Retrieved on February 3, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcode_technology_in_healthcare#Future_of_Barcoding_in_Healthcare
Hsiao, M. (2011). Inventing the Barcode. Retrieved on February 3, 2013 from http://www.library.drexel.edu/blogs/drexelarchives/2011/04/07/innovation-2/