Haemophilia care: The world's first successful trial of a system which tracks and traces drugs administered to haemophilia patients could signal the beginning of a new era of safer haemophilia care, according to an Irish team of researchers.
That the trial of Electronic Product Code (EPC technology) should have taken place in Ireland, where 260 haemophiliacs were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C as a result of receiving contaminated blood products, is even more significant, they say.
Successfully tested in St James's Hospital in Dublin over a two-year period with a 100 per cent success rate, the haemophilia drug administration programme works in a way similar to a Global Trade Item Number.
The EPC technology provides a globally unique serial numbering and bar coding on each vial box, which can then be traced from the manufacturing stage to the point where a patient acquires Clotting Factor Concentrates (CFCs), which are used to treat their condition.
As well as capturing data at every stage along the supply chain, the coding will ensure the correct drug is prescribed to the right patient and automatically update patient history.
In conducting the project, Irish researchers linked up to the existing track and trace solution, implemented in August 2005.
Testing an integrated electronic bar coding technology system was an initiative of the director of the National Centre for Hereditary Coagulation Disorders, Dr Barry White, following the Lindsay Report in 2002. "As a product moves through the supply chain, manufacturers, trading partners and regulators all have access to key data across a secure network, which become invaluable when addressing issues such as product recalls, product authentication or defective ingredients, which, in the case of haemophiliacs, can mean life or death," he said.
The trial, undertaken by GS1 Ireland, is being studied by an expert group, comprising the EU Commission, the Food and Drug Administration and the World Federation of Haemophilia.