EAN system applications for the healthcare industry in Asia Pacific

More than 30 countries on every continent have adopted the EAN system to identify prescriptions and medicines. The UN's International Drug Control Protocol recently agreed to use the EAN system to accurately and timely track the world's narcotic drug epidemic.

In recent years, the healthcare industry in the Asia-Pacific region has benefited greatly from the use of EAN codes. EAN codes are used in the health industry's supply chain to identify drugs that do not require a doctor's prescription; To control the grade of drugs; Tracking the movement of medicines, especially regulated medicines; Identification of patients and types of treatment in hospitals.

Using EAN codes directly avoids the problem of converting different coding structures to the EAN system. EAN codes are used in many areas of the healthcare industry, including drugs sold by prescription, drugs sold without a prescription, all healthcare products, medical supplies, drug registration, patient monitoring, inventory control, logistics management, and hospital administration.

EAN codes are used in a myriad of fields, covering almost all areas of the healthcare industry, from the production and distribution of medicines, to the distribution of medicines in retail and health centres, to the dispensing of medicines in hospitals and clinics, and even to the treatment of patients.

Most countries in the Asia-Pacific region already use EAN systems in various ways for the healthcare industry, with most countries using EAN codes for medicines and medical supplies that do not require a doctor's prescription.

In Malaysia, 38 companies (including those in the pharmaceutical and medical supplies industries) have signed up to EAN Malaysia. Many over-the-counter medicines have EAN codes printed on their packages. The work will extend further to drug registration and healthcare management, where a significant number of retail pharmaceutical and healthcare stores in Malaysia already use barcode scanning to monitor their sales and inventory.

It is very important to adopt a single standard and unified system for the management of health products and their services. It can transmit information quickly and accurately, so that relevant departments can understand the information correctly, so as to ensure that patients can receive appropriate services at a timely and affordable price (lower price).