Bar Coding

Premier Purchasing Partners LP awards Safecor Health L.L.C. (Woburn, MA) a three-year, multi-source agreement for pharmaceutical repackaging services. Under terms of the agreement, Safecor Health will provide Premier members a flexible and comprehensive menu of unit-dose and bar-coded repackaging services geared toward each client's unique packaging needs and medication safety initiatives.

GS1 Healthcare (Brussels, Belgium) has published a new voluntary standard for the Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) of medical products. The standard provides a common set of data and data carriers for medical products at every packaging level, including specific guidance on selection and use of:

For years, users of linear bar codes have been able to do something 2-D bar codes users haven’t—confirm the accuracy of bar code verification systems through the use of a Calibrated Conformance Standard Test Card (CCSTC). These cards can be used for verifier calibration but are principally designed as a tool to test a verifier for conformance as per ISO/IEC specifications. In December, however, GS1 US announced the availability of the ISO/IEC Data Matrix and GS1 DataMatrix CCSTC, featuring 2-D bar code symbols of exact dimensional and reflectance values.

AIM (Warrendale, PA), the international association focusing on bar codes, RFID, and enterprise mobile computing, has published DotCode, a rectangular matrix symbology. AIM reports that the code is designed for machine-readable coding with existing, in-market high-speed industrial printing equipment.
 

GS1 will be holding its bar code certification program known as the “GS1 US Bar Codes and eCom Bar Code Consultant program” at its New Jersey offices November 11-12.  Described as an intensive two days of classroom instruction on GS1 General Specifications, the program will conclude with an open book test.  Participants that score ≥80% correct on this test will be granted a Certificate of Completion as GS1 US Bar Codes and eCom Bar Code Consultants. This certificate indicates the consultant is trained in the GS1 General Specifications and its application.