RFID Tags for COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Chain Logistics

Introduction

The process of tracking, storing and distributing millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine is a daunting task that requires an array of IT tools to coordinate and maintain the fluid supply chain.

As healthcare providers grapple with the rapid, unprecedented mass development, distribution, and administration of COVID-19 vaccine, they are turning to technologies such as RFID tags and 2D barcodes that encode vaccine identification information to help reduce errors and make the vaccine traceable.

The covid-19 vaccine must be transported and stored in an extremely refrigerated environment (~- 80°C) to maintain its quality, which in effect challenges the entire logistics process. The tracking and tracing of the vaccine is further complicated by the fact that the supporting technology should also be able to withstand special conditions.

RFID Tags for COVID-19 Vaccine Management

Faced with the challenge of a rapid, complex rollout of COVID-19 vaccine, many hospitals have aggressively deployed RFID technology to track the status of each vial removed from the ultra-low temperature refrigerator. The vaccine is placed at -40 degrees Celsius to -86 degrees Celsius (-40 degrees Fahrenheit to -123 degrees Celsius), then refrigerated and transported to the vaccination clinic for administration and sometimes return to the refrigerated state while ensuring that the vials do not expire before reaching the patient’s container. UHF RFID tags can help solve this problem.

For each vial of vaccine in a package, employees encode, print and then scan each RFID tag. Each tag is encoded with the product’s lot number, expiration date and unique ID number. The vaccines are then placed in a super refrigerator and the tags are entered into a dedicated shelf inventory system.

After the vaccine is removed from the refrigerator, it must be allowed to sit for a few minutes to warm up before the technician dries each vial and then attaches a pre-printed, lot-specific RFID tag to each vial, which is then scanned into the scanning station to begin a five-day countdown to the BUD. As these tagged vials are scanned, the system can set the countdown interval to indicate how many days the vials can be left out of the refrigerator before they expire.

As the vaccine leaves the central pharmacy from the refrigerator, it will be scanned at the reader location to ensure that each vial is still viable and has not exceeded the BUD’s five-day expiration date. The scanning station captures the tag readings of the vials stored on the tray.

The station is equipped with an RFID reader at the bottom of the station. As the user opens and then closes the door, the station scans the RFID tag and reads the tray as it leaves the clinic. At the end of the day, the vaccine transport case is returned to the central pharmacy and the vaccine case is placed in the RFID reader station compartment to be scanned again. The RFID tags on all remaining vaccine vials are interrogated to show the time remaining before expiration, and they are returned to the refrigerator.

With this technology, hospitals can ensure the correct number of vials are in the refrigerator and can monitor expiration dates. Using an RFID-based management system makes processes faster and reduces risk

Pharmacies are fast-paced locations during a pandemic, and getting each vial to the patient is critical to our community. RFID promises to be a real solution to the vaccine tracking problem because it provides item-level visibility of each vial. The bottom line for vaccine management is that RFID makes counts more accurate and ultimately allows for more people to be vaccinated

RFID Smart Packaging for Masks

RFID technology is already widely used in the retail industry, and there are many case studies and research studies that prove the successful adoption of RFID, especially in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry. It is clear that the benefits of RFID adoption in your value chain (product security, logistics visibility, inventory management and customer experience) outweigh the costs and RFID technology will undoubtedly become a trending technology in the medical/health product market. Providing RFID smart packaging and tracking solutions for medical masks is becoming one of the trends.

Depending on business needs, mask manufacturers can choose to apply smart packaging to each medical mask or to each box. After mask products are tagged with RFID tags, all business activities including packaging, shipping, inbound/outbound inventory to the point of sale, and even for consumer behavior can be tracked using RFID devices and systems.

RFID Smart Package for Face Masks

Contact Us

HUAYUAN has been specializing in RFID development and production for 20+ years and has a monthly RFID tag capacity of over 1 million. We can provide cryogenic liquid nitrogen tags for vaccines, and flexible RFID tags for glove and mask packaging. For more information about RFID tags, please contact HUAYUAN sales team