Patent ID: 8332240

Claim:
A method for determining and tracking the safety and efficacy of a vaccine or pharmaceutical product having a tag with at least one environmental sensor and communications electronics associated therewith comprising: upon receipt of the product by a recipient associated with storing and administering or disbursing the product, determining the safety and efficacy of the product prior to adding the product to inventory by: (a) reading a tag associated with an individual vaccine or pharmaceutical product received, wherein the tag includes first information about the product, and wherein the tag further includes second information about the product recorded by an environmental sensor of the tag; (b) determining the safety and efficacy of the product based on the readings from the tag by: (i) comparing the first information read from the tag including an expiration date with a current date to determine whether the product has reached the expiration date indicating the product is expired; (ii) comparing the second information read from the tag including a range of environments read from the environmental sensor prior to receipt to a predetermined acceptable threshold range of environments for the product indicating whether the product has exceeded the threshold; (c) outputting information regarding the determination of safety and efficacy of the product, wherein if either determination indicates that the product is expired or the product has exceeded the environment threshold, designating that the product is unsafe and should not be administered; and upon retrieval of the product from inventory for administration to a patient, verifying the safety and efficacy of the product by repeating steps (a)-(c) and further verifying patient vaccine schedules, using a computer, prior to administration of the product by comparing a patient vaccine schedule for the product to the current date and the computer outputting an alarm should the comparison indicate an improper administration.