Uniform Barcode Processing
The UBP Profile describes a way to send the information contained in a barcode and in return receive the parsed content of that barcode in the form of a FHIR resource instance - a medication, a device, a patient, or staff.
Summary
The UBP Profile describes a common mechanism to process (parse) a barcode that is being scanned in a hospital - at the point of care, at inventory, etc. The barcode can be of a medication, but also of a medical device, or a patient - the healthcare professional will typically scan the barcodes in the same way, and the system will determine what the barcode represents, and what should be done with the information.
Benefits
Automatic Identification and Data Capture (for example barcode technology) is known to contribute to patient safety by unequivocally identifying the patient and the health products, detecting possible errors. Barcodes can be issued in different formats following different conventions, which means that there are different structures and content across barcodes. However, the healthcare professional is normally unaware of the differences. The UBP Profile defines a mechanism where the barcode processing is the same across all items scanned (patient, product, location, professional) so that the systems implement this in a consistent manner.
Details
The UBP Profile defines a FHIR REST operation. This operation can be invoked by every system that needs external processing of a barcode. As a response, the decoding system provides a FHIR resource representing the entity that is being scanned - a resource representing the patient, the medicinal product, etc.
Systems Affected
the UBP Profile is beneficial to all systems that require barcode parsing but do not implement the algorithms to decode the barcode AND to determine the kind of item being scanned.
Actors & Transactions:
<Insert an actor-transaction diagram, and or list of Content Definitions>
Specification
Profile Status: Trial Implementation http://ihe.net/uploadedFiles/Documents/Pharmacy/IHE_Pharm_Suppl_UBP.pdf
Documents:
Underlying Standards:
- HL7 FHIR - STU3 or newer.
Related Profiles
- Mobile Medication Administration [MMA] may use Barcode scanning at the point of care
Test tool
Here is a test tool web-site to demonstrate UBP profile https://vdzel.home.xs4all.nl/ihe-barcode-demo/