Patent Application
20230012851
This non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) to Patent Application No(s). 110125413 filed in Taiwan on Jul. 9, 2021, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a distribution technology for materials which requires to be stored at low temperatures, and more particularly, to a material tracking and management system using electronic tags.
With the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the cumulative number of global deaths continues to upsurge. Therefore, every country in the world is committed to the research, development, and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines. It is known up to date that COVID-19 vaccines are classified into mRNA, adenovirus and spike protein types. Among them, the vaccines of Moderna and BioNTech (BNT) belong to the mRNA type, while the vaccines of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson belong to the adenovirus type. On the other hand, the vaccine of Novavax belongs to the spike protein type.
In general, a vaccine is manufactured by the manufacturers and then transported by a professional logistical company at low temperatures to a designated location, such as a low-temperature warehouse, hospital, or vaccine injection site. Further, for vaccination, a medical staff will unpack a box and take out a vaccine vial, and vaccinate a patient using a syringe after confirming that information on the vial label is correct. It can be easily understood that tracing the manufacturer, type, storage and transportation method (including cold storage conditions), and use process of the vaccine can be very crucial. In light of this perspective, Taiwan Utility Model Patent No. M610783 discloses a pharmaceutical tracking management system. In accordance with the disclosure in Patent No. M610783, an electronic tag, such as an RFID tag or an NFC tag, is attached to a medicine vial, and pharmaceutical information related to the vial is written into a memory of the electronic tag. The aforementioned pharmaceutical information at least includes a National Drug Code (NDC), a lot number, a serial number, ingredients, and a regular expiration date.
According to the disclosure of Taiwan Patent No. M610783, after the vaccine is sealed in the vial, the manufacturer's staff may access the pharmaceutical information as described using a special electronic device with an electronic tag access function. Therefore, during the transportation of the vaccine, the logistics company's staff may write the logistics history of the vaccine into the memory of the electronic tag by using the special electronic device. The logistics history as described includes a temperature control record, a positioning record, logistics vehicle number information and the logistics staff's information. After the vaccine is delivered to a hospital, a medical staff, while using the bottled vaccine, is also able to write a usage history of the vaccine into the memory of the electronic tag by using the aforementioned special electronic device, wherein the medical history as described includes, but not limited to, the medical staff's information, a vaccination time, patient identity information, patient physiological information, and patient medical history information, etc. In this design, in the event that allergy or other adverse reactions occur to a patient who is vaccinated with the vaccine, the medical staff can look up in the database and access the pharmaceutical information, logistics history, and usage history in the corresponding electronic tag, thereby determining the origin of the problem.
In spite of the fact that a pharmaceutical tracking management system is disclosed by Taiwan Patent No. M610783, the disclosed pharmaceutical tracking management system is found to have some drawbacks which are summarized as follows.
(1) Though the vaccines of AstraZeneca, BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, and others are all bottled in vials, “cold storage conditions” vary with different types of vaccines. For instance, a cold storage condition for the BNT vaccine is at a temperature from −60 to −80° C., while a cold storage condition for the AstraZeneca vaccine is at a temperature from 2 to 8° C. Even though the cold storage condition required for the BNT vaccine can also be adjusted to a temperature from 2 to 8° C., it must be completely used within 120 hours thereafter. In other words, an instant change of the cold storage temperature would significantly affect an actual expiration date of the vaccine. In detail, when the cold storage temperature of a storage environment does not conform to the cold storage condition required for a vaccine, a qualitive change occurs to the vaccine located in such storage environment, and the change will inevitably become even worse as storage time becomes longer. Yet, in general, the medical staff would not particularly pay attention to the location and temperature control records during the process of using of vaccine, but only pay special attention to a lot number, serial number, ingredients, and regular expiration date in the pharmaceutical information. This is because ingredients of a vaccine may be an allergen to certain patients, while the regular expiration date is provided by the manufacturer, and vaccines that are expired beyond the regular expiration date must be scrapped. To be more detailed, if an emergent situation occurs during the transportation or storage of the vaccine, causing the cold temperature of the storage environment to fail to meet the cold storage condition required for the vaccine, the longer the emergent situation lasts, the more essentially an actual expiration date of the vaccine would be affected. However, in terms of the technical solution provided in the prior art, the medical staff would not be able to recognize a current change of the vaccine expiration date according to the logistics history (e.g., the temperature control record) and/or the pharmaceutical information (e.g., the ingredients and regular expiration date) of the vaccine.
(2) On the other hand, as disclosed in Taiwan Utility Model Patent No. M610783, the chip in the electronic tag attached to the vial includes an identification tag, a positioning unit, an anti-counterfeiting unit, a temperature sensor and a battery. Nevertheless, a commercial regular electronic tag is basically composed of only a coil, a radio frequency chip, a microcontroller chip and a memory. Consequently, it can be understood that the chip used in the electronic tag disclosed in Taiwan Utility Model Patent No. M610783 is a specific chip, which results in higher manufacturing cost for the electronic tag as described and seriously leads to impacts on pharmaceutical manufacturers' purchase intentions. Moreover, it would be well-known to electronic engineers who have been involved in the design and manufacture of sensor circuits over a long time that thermistors are the simplest type of temperature sensors, and must be used with an analog front-end circuit to read voltage change signals thereof, which are converted into digital numbers by a digital processing circuit at a rear end, and lastly, temperature sensing values representing the digital numbers are calculated by employing an algorithm. Therefore, Taiwan Utility Model Patent No. M610783 discloses that the electronic tag comprises the temperature sensor, but does not disclose any reading chip for the temperature sensor, and as a result, the temperature sensor turns out to be a redundant component without any substantial functionality.
According to above descriptions, it is understood that, there are still rooms for improvement in the conventional pharmaceutical tracking management systeme. In view of that, inventors of the present application have made great efforts to make inventive research and eventually provided a material tracking and management system using electronic tags.
The primary objective of the present invention is to disclose a material tracking and management system using electronic tags, which comprises a plurality of electronic tags respectively connected to a plurality of containers, at least one first electronic device and at least one second electronic device. In which, each of the containers contains a material, and each of the electronic tags includes a memory for storing basic material information corresponding to the material. As described in more detail below, the basic material information includes a material identification code, a lot number, a serial number, ingredients, a regular expiration date, and a cold storage condition. According to the present invention, during the storage and transportation of the containers, the first electronic device receives an ambient temperature of a storage environment through a temperature sensing device, performs an expiration date calibration and determination based on the cold storage condition and the ambient temperature, and then writes an expiration date calibration parameter written into the memory of each of the electronic tags if an expiration date calibration process is required to be performed. As such, after the second electronic device reads from the electronic tag corresponding to the container on a user end, a display screen of the second electronic device displays an instant expiration date of the material contained in the container.
It should be understood that when the material tracking and management system using electronic tags described in the present invention is applied to a currently existing Warehouse Management System (WMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system with Success and Failure Factors of Adopting (SAP) function, and/or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) System of enterprises or hospitals, it can facilitate the enterprises or hospitals to track and manage expiration dates of food and/or pharmaceuticals thereof to effectively prevent the food and/or medicine which is expired beyond the expiration dates from being misused, thereby achieving overall reduction in the occurrence probability of adverse drug events and/or food poisioning incidents.
In order to achieve the aforementioned objective, a material tracking and management system using electronic tags according to a first embodiment of the present invention is provided, which includes:
In some applicable embodiments, the storage environment as described is any one selected from a group consisting of a cargo storage space of a vehicle, a cargo storage space of a warehouse, a cargo storage space of a transportation cabinet, a cargo storage space of a freezer, and a cargo storage space of a refrigerated cabinet.
In some applicable embodiments, the material as described is a vaccine, bacterial strain, medicine, blood, specimen, seafood, wine, fruit or vegetable, frozen food, refrigerated food and any other article with a special requirement for a cold storage temperature.
In some embodiments, the second electronic device as described further includes a warning unit, which displays an expiration date warning message on the display screen based on the instant expiration date.
In some applicable embodiments, the first electronic device as described further includes a cold storage condition-expiration date look-up table (LUT).
In some applicable embodiments, the electronic tag as described is a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, an ultra-high frequency radio frequency identification (UHF RFID) tag or a near-field communication (NFC) tag.
In some applicable embodiments, each of the first electronic device and the second electronic device as described is an industrial computer with an electronic tag read/write function, a smart phone with an electronic tag read/write function, a tablet computer with an electronic tag read/write function, a laptop computer with an electronic tag read/write function, a desktop computer with an electronic tag read/write function, an integrated computer with an electronic tag read/write function or a point of sale system (POS) with an electronic tag read/write function.
In some applicable embodiments, the material tracking and management system using electronic tags of the present invention further includes a third electronic device that enables the first electronic device, in the presence of a wireless network, to transmit the basic material information and the expiration date calibration parameter which are written into the memory of each of the electronic tags as described to the third electronic device, and that enables the second electronic device as described to receive the basic material information and the expiration date calibration parameter corresponding to each of the electronic tags from the third electronic device.
In some applicable embodiments, the third electronic device as described is a cloud database, a cloud server, a cloud computing device or a cloud hard drive.
Further, a material tracking and management system using electronic tags according to a second embodiment of the present invention is provided, which includes:
wherein after at least one of the containers is transported to the user environment, the second electronic device reads from the electronic tag corresponding to the container to acquire the basic material information which includes the regular expiration date and the cold storage condition and the ambient temperature as described, the computing unit of the second electronic device then performs an expiration date calibration and determination process based on the cold storage condition and the ambient temperature, and writes an expiration date calibration parameter the memory of each of the electronic tags when an expiration date calibration process is required to be performed. Simultaneously, the second electronic device reads from the electronic tag corresponding to the container to acquire the basic material information which includes the regular expiration date and the expiration date calibration parameter, and displays an instant expiration date of the material contained in the container on the display screen.
In some applicable embodiments, the second electronic device as described further includes a warning unit, which displays an expiration date warning message on the display screen based on the instant expiration date.
In some applicable embodiments, the first electronic device as described further includes a cold storage condition-expiration date look-up table (LUT).
In some applicable embodiments, each of the first electronic device and the second electronic device as described is an industrial computer with an electronic tag read/write function, a smart phone with an electronic tag read/write function, a tablet computer with an electronic tag read/write function, a laptop computer with an electronic tag read/write function, a desktop computer with an electronic tag read/write function, an integrated computer with an electronic tag read/write function, or a point of sale system (POS) with an electronic tag read/write function.
In some applicable embodiments, the material tracking and management system using electronic tags of the present invention further includes a third electronic device that enables the first electronic device, in the presence of a wireless network, to transmit the basic material information and the expiration date calibration parameter which are written into the memory of each of the electronic tags as described to the third electronic device, and that enables the second electronic device as described to receive the basic material information and the expiration date calibration parameter corresponding to each of the electronic tags from the third electronic device.
In some applicable embodiments, the third electronic device as described is a cloud database, a cloud server, a cloud computing device or a cloud hard drive.
Moreover, a usage of a material tracking and management system using electronic tags of the present invention is further provided, which is applied in the integration with a warehouse management system (WMS), an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system with a resource success and failure factors of adopting (SAP) function, and/or a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system.
The invention as well as a preferred mode of use and advantages thereof will be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
To more clearly describe a material tracking and management system using electronic tags according to the present invention, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings hereinafter.
Referring to
To be more detailed, the at least one first electronic device 12 and the plurality of containers 2 are located in a storage environment at the same time. For example, the material contained in each container 2 is a vaccine. It should be understood that after the vaccine is produced by the manufacturer, it is transported with the assistance of a professional low-temperature logistics company to a designated location, such as a low-temperature warehouse, a hospital, or a vaccine injection site. Expectedly, during the process of vaccine transportation and storage, the cold storage condition of the storage environment is strictly required. Therefore, the storage environment may include, but not limited to, a cargo storage space of a vehicle, a cargo storage space of a warehouse, a cargo storage space of a transportation cabinet, a cargo storage space of a freezer, and a cargo storage space of a refrigerated cabinet.
As shown in
Therefore, during the 3 hours of transportation, the first electronic device 12 acquires the ambient temperature in the storage environment. Thereafter, the computing unit 121 inside the first electronic device 12 performs an expiration date calibration and determination process based on the cold storage condition (obtained from the electronic tag 11) and the ambient temperature (obtained from the temperature sensing device 14). Then, when an expiration date calibration process is required to be performed, an expiration parameter is written into the memory of each electronic tag 11. Lastly, after at least one of the containers 2 is transported to the user environment as described, the second electronic device 13 reads from the electronic tag 11 corresponding to the container 2 to acquire the basic material information including, but not limited to, the regular expiration date and the expiration date calibration parameter, and then, displays an instant expiration date of the material contained in container 2 is on a display screen thereof.
For another example, after the plurality of containers 2 are transported to location B to be frozen for N hours. During the process of frozen storage, the first electronic device 12 acquires the ambient temperature in the storage environment. Accordingly, the computing unit 121 inside the first electronic device 12 performs the expiration date calibration and determination process based on the cold storage condition (obtained from the electronic tag 11) and the ambient temperature (obtained from the temperature sensing device 14). Thereafter, when the expiration date calibration process is required to be performed, the expiration date calibration parameter is written into the memory of each electronic tag 11. Lastly, after at least one of the containers 2 is transported to the user environment, the second electronic device 13 reads from the electronic tag 11 corresponding to the container 2 to acquire the basic material information including, but not limited to, the regular expiration date and the expiration date calibration parameter, and then displays the instant expiration date of the material contained in container 2 on the display screen.
In addition, as shown in
In particular, as illustrated in
On the other hand, although
Further, it would be well known to electronic engineers who have been involved in the design and production of electronic tags over a long period of time that the electronic tag 11 illustrated in
In addition, in an applicable embodiment, the temperature sensing device 14 illustrated in
In an applicable embodiment, as the cold storage space of the transportation vehicle is already provided with a temperature sensor module to monitor the ambient temperature, the temperature sensor module may also be directly coupled to the first electronic device 12 in a wired or wireless manner, so as to serve as the temperature sensing device 14 illustrated in
Furthermore, in yest another applicable embodiment, the temperature sensing device 14 shown in
It should be noted that the material tracking and management system 1 using electronic tags of the present invention illustrated in
It can be understood according to the description set forth above that the material tracking and management system using electronic tags in the present invention is mainly integrated in a warehouse management system (WMS), an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system with a success and failure factors of adopting (SAP) function, and/or a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, which facilitates tracking and managing the expiration dates of food and/or pharmaceuticals thereof to effectively prevent the food and/or medicine which is expired beyond the expiration date from being misused, thereby achieving overall reduction in the occurrence probability of adverse drug events and/or food poisioning incidents. In other words, as illustrated in
Referring to
In this design, after the plurality of containers 2 are placed in the storage environment as described, the first electronic device 12 accesses the electronic tag 11 of each container 2 to determine the cold storage condition for the material contained in each container 2. Further, the first electronic device 12, during the storage period, receives an ambient temperature of the storage environment from the temperature sensing device 14, and then writes the sensed ambient temperature into the memory of each electronic tag 11. Further, after at least one of the containers 2 is transported to the user environment, the second electronic device 13 accesses the electronic tag 11 of each container 2 to receive the basic material information which includes the regular expiration date and the cold storage condition and the ambient temperature. Then, the computing unit 131 of the second electronic device 13 performs the expiration date calibration and determination process based on the cold storage condition and the ambient temperature. Thereafter, when an expiration date calibration is required to be performed, an expiration date calibration parameter is written into the memory of each of the electronic tags 11. Meanwhile, the second electronic device 13 accesses the electronic tag 11 of the container 2 to acquire the basic material information including the regular expiration date and the expiration date calibration parameter, and then, displays an instant expiration date of the material contained in the container 2 on the display screen.
Therefore, above descriptions, all embodiments and their functions of the material tracking and management system using electronic tags according to the present invention have been introduced completely and clearly. The above description is made on embodiments of the present invention. However, the embodiments are not intended to limit scope of the present invention, and all equivalent implementations or alterations within the spirit of the present invention still fall within the scope of the present invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 110125413 | Jul 2021 | TW | national |
