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The Indian healthcare industry has witnessed a steady yet dramatic transformation in the last few years with increasing investments in the healthcare system as the nation marks a gradual shift towards automation and digitisation. In such a progressive endeavour, technological advancements and tools like unified QR codes/2D barcodes have a transforming role, especially when it comes to streamlining daily processes and improving patient care in healthcare facilities. However, despite these benefits, the adoption rate of QR/2D barcode systems in hospitals, healthcare facilities and pharmaceutical drugs is relatively underwhelming. This gap could be due to the limited awareness about the broader application and benefit of unified and interoperable QR/2D barcodes in the healthcare industry.
A Brief About QR Code
Typically, a QR/2D barcode is a two-dimensional barcode characterised by its quick scanning ability and large storage capacity. Despite its limited physical space, a 2D code is capable of encoding a vast array of information including URLs. It is not confined to the traditional barcode reader for decoding and allows anyone with a standard smartphone to scan and decode the information seamlessly. These features add to the functionality of QR/2D barcode systems, enabling hospitals, healthcare providers, and pharma manufacturers to streamline data management.
Adopting a unified QR/2D barcode with a standards-based digital link can also facilitate the traceability of pharmaceutical product details, ensuring end-to-end visibility and expiry management. For instance, GS1 Digital Link helps barcodes become web links or URL barcodes. This allows brands to connect a product's unique identity to online information.
Unified QR/2D barcode addresses the increasing need for encoding more information, a requirement that is not only crucial for brands but also to comply with regulatory requirements, keeping it consumer-centric. Given the impracticality of placing every image on a product, digitisation offers a viable solution. This barcode is not merely a data carrier; it also enables tracking and tracing products, managing inventory, aiding recall management, and even detecting counterfeit products.
Role of QR/2D barcode in the Indian Healthcare Sector
The implementation of the QR/2D barcode system extends to a multitude of benefits in various areas of healthcare. From streamlining administrative processes to enhancing the accuracy of medical record keeping, the potential applications of this technology are vast and impactful, thereby eliminating risk to patient safety. Besides these, QR/2D barcode system implementation can benefit in these areas -
Patient registration process: Implementing unified QR/2D barcode can expedite patient registration by enabling them to fill out necessary e-forms and generate a unique code before visiting the healthcare facility. The National Health Authority (NHA), which is under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission has recently implemented QR code-backed OPD registration in over 300 public hospitals. Such a move has successfully reduced patient waiting time from 50 minutes to 4 minutes.
Electronic Health Records (EHR) integration: QR/2D barcodes can also help hospital staff link physical medical documents such as lab reports, diagnostic testing results, images, progress charts, etc. to patients’ e-health records.
Management of Medication: Integrating unified QR/2D barcodes into medication labels and packaging allows hospital administration to access key information such as expiration dates, dosage instructions, batch numbers, drug interaction warnings, and leaflet information. This ensures accurate medication administration, minimises errors by patients and hospital staff, and enhances patient safety and outcomes.
Tracking Medical Devices: Adopting unified QR/2D codes for medical devices enables hospital staff to effectively trace the product's location, origin, batch number, maintenance history, and function. This streamlines inventory management, reduces equipment misplacement, and ensures timely maintenance, thereby enhancing traceability and operational efficiency.
Incorporating the concept of a Unique Device Identifier (UDI) further elevates the effectiveness of this system. A UDI is unique to each medical device and model. It plays a crucial role in identifying medical devices used in healthcare. The UDI system allows end-to-end visibility, manage product recalls, counterfeit detection, and mitigates potential medical device use errors and fosters an environment of patient safety.
The widespread implementation of unified QR/2D barcodes in the healthcare sector, which should be a standards-based Digital Link, can help streamline operations, improve inventory management, and more importantly increase patient safety. The same barcode can serve multiple purposes, from ensuring interoperability to facilitating faster and accurate billing at chemists and hospitals. It also plays an important role in managing patient care, inventory, recalls, and more. Unified QR/2D barcode system also enable interoperability for drugs which are exported and which are sold in domestic market. The government has already initiated this transformation by implementing it for the top 300 pharmaceutical brands. This is a significant first step, but it represents only a small fraction of the potential scope. The next crucial step is to extend this implementation to other brands, enabling hospitals, chemists, and healthcare facilities to utilise the existing barcodes on medicines and medical devices.
The adoption rate is rising with increased awareness, but with focused efforts to amplify digitisation, the sector can witness positive changes, which will help form a patient-centric and transparent healthcare ecosystem that promotes traceability at every step.
The author is CEO, GS1 India
