# Presentation: 643267

## An Alternative Machine-Readable Coding Scheme for Unit Dose Medications

**Presentation to****the US Food & Drug Administration****July 26,  2002**

**Presenter: Stuart Creque****VP, Business Development****      (510) 302-3463  ext 204**
- _[stuartc@findtheDOT.com](mailto:stuartc@findtheDOT.com)_

## Presentation

***Patient Safety Depends on Verifying the “Five Rights” of Medication Administration***
***Quality Depends on Measurable Systems***
***Bar Codes and the Bad Trade-off***
***Bar Code Legacy Systems: What Do They Have in Common?***
***The Answer: a Linking Code***
***Comparing Med Dots to Bar Codes***
***The Med Dot Patient Safety Solution***
***Solution Architecture & Its Advantages***
***Cost Advantages***
***Licensing Med Dots Industrywide***

## “Five Rights” of Medication Administration

- Right patient
- Right medication
- Right dose
- Right time
- Right route – delivery method (oral, injected, etc.) and site (right or left eye, etc.)

## Quality Depends on Measurable Systems

- The value of the system lies in verifying 100 percent of medication administration actions _*and*_ recording (measuring) every one of those actions
- Measurement is critical to subsequent root-cause analysis and other systemic approaches to error prevention
- The measurement gives a _*denominator*_ to calculate true error rates
_*Every*_ patient caregiver (RN, LVN/LPN, etc.) _*must have*_ a validation and measurement tool

## Bar Code-Based Approaches

*Data about medication is embedded in the code*
- Implies generating & printing codes on the fly
- New data requirements = new codes on packages
- More data = bigger code
- Still requires lookup from database to compare content of code to medication order

## The Bad Trade-off of Bar Codes

*Symbol size vs. cost of equipment*
- 1-D (traditional) bar codes require large packaging area
- Increases costs of packaging, storage, transportation
- Require laser scanners for maximum reliability and convenience
- RSS or 2-D (matrix) codes require less packaging area
- Decreases packaging & related costs
- Substantially increases system implementation costs due to more sophisticated, expensive readers

## No Good Answer with Bar Codes

*With traditional bar codes, packaging costs (including retooling production lines) dissuade manufacturers and hospitals have difficulty justifying moderately expensive bar code readers*
*If the manufacturer tries to reduce packaging costs using RSS or matrix codes, the hospital is even less able to afford to implement the system due to the prohibitive cost of the code readers*

## The Bar Code Legacy Vendors

- Baxter (Deerfield, IL) – AutrosTM
- Becton, Dickinson (Franklin Lakes, NJ) – BD.id-RxTM
- Bridge Medical (Solana Beach, CA) – MedPointTM
- Cardinal Health (Dublin, OH) – Pyxis division – VeriFiveTM
- McKesson (San Francisco, CA) – Horizon Admin-Rx TM
- Siemens Health Services (Malvern, PA) – Med Administration Check

## What Do They Have in Common?

- All offer similar solutions
- All use 20-year old industrial bar-code technology
- Total market share is 3%
*The shortcomings of bar codes compromise patient safety: 97% of US hospital patients don’t have protection against bedside medication errors*

## The Answer

*A new code symbol and reader with these ideal characteristics:*
- A “linking code” that links the medication to a database entry that can be dynamically updated
- Large code space: every dose of every medication gets a unique serial number  _*(critical in the era of genomics)*_
- Small size: fits onto economically-sized unit dose packages with little, if any, redesign
- Low-cost reader: equipping every patient caregiver with a code reader is affordable
- Ease of operation: doesn’t require careful alignment, extensive software training

## Advantages of a Linking Code

- Static information (e.g., manufacturer, NDC number, lot, expiration date, etc.) can be added to database at any time
*Codes can be pre-printed on packaging material, then associated to specific  product/plant/line/lot/date information after packaging run*
- Dynamic information (e.g., sales history, medication order details, dispensing history, administration details, genomic customization, lot recalls, etc.) can be tracked for each individual dose
- Same code symbol can be used to identify patient, caregiver, port on IV or other line, etc.
- Same code symbol on paperwork and accessory cards permits automatic charting, documentation, charge capture, etc.

## Med Dots v. Bar Codes

**Med Dots v. Bar Codes**

**Small **— 5 mm diameter
**Reliable **— Forward Error Correction; round shape can be read at any angle
**Low Cost Reader **— a personal reader can sell forunder $100.
**Encrypted **— unique and encrypted
**Huge Code Space **— 500 unique Med Dots for everyhuman being on Earth, every day, for 1,000 years

- Enlarged Med  Dot

***Bar codes are missing******these five critical features:***

## Functional Comparison

**Existing Approaches**

**Functional Comparison**

**Cost**

**Ease of ****Deployment**

**Compatibility**

- Wireless Med Dot readers cost $100.

- No new network required. The wireless link is direct to the nurse’s station PC—30 foot range, in 900 MHz ISM band.Minimal training required.

- Small (5 mm), round Med Dot fits on unit-dose packaging.

- Bar code readers cost $300 to $1150 each.

- Other systems require expensive and potentially interfering 802.11 hospital-wide wireless network. Extensive training required.

- 1-D bar codes are 20X times larger and require secondary drug packaging to hold the large bar code label.

**Med Dot Solution**

**Ease of Use**

**Safety**
**All Five Rights**

**Expandability**

- Industrial bar code scanners weight 8 oz to 2.5 lbs. Often must be attached fragile PDA. Multiple steps are required to scan a bar code.

- Existing systems often miss key rights (such as omission, abuse, or wrong time) because bar codes are not unique nor specific to patient.

- Bar code systems are force-fit into other applications within the hospital.

- Dedicated wireless Med Dot reader weighs 1.25 oz.Shirt-pocket friendly. No keyboard. No docking. Automatic data synchronization and recording.

- Each Med Dot is unique to a single-dose for a single patient. Prevents abuse, and tracks errors to the cause of the error.

- Med Dots naturally fit into billing, ordering, and other hospital applications.

## Med Dot Patient Safety Solution

***Med Dots in a Patient Medication Safety System***

- Medications are prepared in the hospital pharmacy in unit doses.
- Each dose is marked with a “Med Dot” (unique machine-readable code)
- The nurse taps the Med Dots with her “Dot Finder” (compact wireless reader)
- The electronic Dot Finder provides instant validation of all five rights.
- The system automatically records details of medication given (patient, nurse, time, drug, dose, route, notes)

## Solution Architecture

- Med-FiveServer

- Pharmacy
- System

- ComputerPhysicianOrder Entry

- NursingStation PC

- ftD

- Content &
- History
- Database

- Printer

**Med Dot****Reader**

- Med-Five RF link

- Pick list

- Med
- orders

- Order data,
- Tap data

- Pick list w/Dots
- MAR w/Dots

- Dot
- Database

- Med Dot
- Lookup

- Med &Tap Data

## Architectural Advantages

- Med Dots can be “layered” on top of existing pharmacy information systems without extensive reprogramming
- The Med Dot layer “listens” to medication orders after they are verified by the pharmacy system, as they are transmitted to the nursing unit
- The Med Dot identification and validation layer adds richness and specificity to medication orders
- Med Dots can be incorporated easily into existing bedside verification solutions

## Code Printing Cost Advantages

- Med Dots can be printed on existing packaging with little marginal cost
- No expensive retooling of packaging lines for “on the fly” coding
- No packaging material added just to print codes
- Potential savings of hundreds of $millions annually
- Affordability and ease of implementation mean greater uptake by manufacturers and more universal availability to hospitals

## System Cost Advantages

- Med Dot technology is much more affordable for the hospital
- Equipping 2.4 million RNs, LVN/LPNs, CNAs with Med Dot readers saves between $500 million and $2.5 billion compared to bar code scanners
- Equipping 5,800 hospitals saves several $billion more in reduced system implementation costs
- Affordability means more universal utilization and better, more widespread protection of patients

## Implementation Industrywide

- findtheDOT will license Med Dot printing technology at minimal cost (i.e., no per-package royalties) to every pharmaceutical & biologic product manufacturer and packager
- findtheDOT will license any interested manufacturer to produce Med Dot readers
- findtheDOT will license any interested systems integrator to utilize Med Dots for patient safety
- Licensing fees will be used to maintain a central registry of Med Dot codes for the industry

## Making a Real Difference

***“******findtheDOT’s technology has the potential to dramatically reduce medical errors and ******thereby increase the quality of patient care.”***

- —Dr. David B Nash, MD, MBA    Dean and Director, Jefferson Medical College    Advisor to findtheDOT

***Med Dots will save hundreds of lives and billions of healthcare dollars each year.***