Making the Promise of UDI a Reality

In a recent Fortune article, “Medical devices are nearly impossible for patients to track. Can these companies finally fix that?” the author discusses how difficult it is to track recalled items such as breast implants and how the FDA’s Unique Device Identification (UDI) system has not yet resolved the challenge of tracking all medical devices. 

Although adoption of the UDI regulation has had its bugs given the massive scale and complexity of the process, it’s a critically important development for the healthcare supply chain and for the protection of patients in the case of recalls. Having created a standard identification system for all medical devices, the UDI regulation enables “track & trace” from point of origin to the patient. At the SKU-level, many manufacturers serialize the identity of each item produced, thereby adding an element of total traceability. 

Inventory management solutions that automate UDI data capture, such as VueTrack™, a barcode scanning system, and VueTrack-RF™, which utilizes RAIN RFID readers, have the power to accurately track medical devices and supplies throughout their life cycle, as well as report essential information about these items to the hospital. The UDI data on the RFID tag provides meticulous tracking of medical devices from deep within the manufacturer’s supply chain all the way to the point of care. With the UDI data, devices can also be tracked to the hospital’s clinical, billing, and ERP systems, as well as electronic health records.

In addition to these device tracking technologies, VUEMED goes even further with VueTrack-UDI™ by encoding all product information (ID, lot or serial numbers, and expiration dates) onto a UDI-compliant RAIN RFID tag, to bring the highest level of accuracy to data capture as well as to automate tracking. Such reliable and complete data can easily be searched and reported in the VUEMED Cloud or be fed to the hospital’s performance metrics to enable full control over its clinical inventory. 

VUEMED’s inventory tracking and data capture technologies enable hospitals to track recalled items instantly – we provide hospitals with the tools and data to initiate follow-up care and alert patients in the case of a recall, even years later. Our solutions also allow users to monitor expiring products and avoid the implantation of expired items – expired products can be seen immediately throughout the facility with their exact location, and then blocked from continuing their progression. 

For more information about our UDI-compliant device tracking capabilities, please contact us at info@vuemed.com