The members of EHIBCC are users of barcode and RFID in health care. Primarily members are manufacturers but also hospitals become members being interested in sharing the expertise and having interest in marking items uniquely by themselfes. Members get a unique “Labeler Identification Code – LIC” registered according to “ISO/IEC 15459 Unique Identification”. The members use the LIC primarily for unique marking medical devices but also any item to be unique such as transport units, containers, shipment notes and what ever may need a unique code autodoscriminating from any other code (Barcode or RFID Tag). The LIC, also known as “Company Identification Code” is unique on a world wide base for cross country and cross sectorial use.
Interested parties ask for the application form to apply for membership and Labeler Identification Code (LIC). The membership fee printed with the application form has been structured according to the turnover of the applicant. Enterprises with interest in more than one LIC can apply for secondary LICs to a special rate. For Europe applicants may apply for an alpha numeric synonym but the default value is a 3 digit number proceeded by a letter (E for Europe).
For membership and LIC application forms click here.
Turkey: HIBC was accredited for the UDI system in Turkey 2008. The handling for the registarion process is easy. HIBC users get a free tool for generating product code registration lists (HIBISCAN with HIBC UBB-UDI table generator) . Registration pf the products by help of the partner in Turkey.
USA: HIBC was accredited for USA by FDA Dec. 26, 2013. The HIBC Primary code is for registration with the UDI data base GDUID where the full HIBC applied with product variables is for the product labels.
Europe & worldwide: The UDI system of "International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF)" includes HIBC for UDI compatible to USA.
The founder associations HIBCC in Phoenix, Arizona and EHIBCC in The Hague, Netherlands build an international network for support of the HIBC codification system. Liaison partners are associations of industry and health care but also standardisation institutes like ANSI, CEN, DIN, ISO. Specific support will be supplied by the working groups where the Joined Working Group AIDC in Europe consists of members delegated from liaisons like BVD/ADE, BPI, VDGH, VDDI/FIDE, etc. Countries like Japan and Turkey get special local support due to growth in this areas. Additional support of technical nature will be supplied by AIM members as manufacturers and distributors for AutoID hard and software. For printing and scanning HIBC codes as Barcode symbols or RFID tags standard ISO conforming equipment is sufficient and widely available. In addition to standard tools available from the market, EHIBCC supplies tools for quality control of HIBC codes free for the members by the support contractor Elmicron.
Links:
>> BPI - Bundesverband der Pharmazeutischen Industrie
>> BVD - Bundesverband Dentalhandel e.V.
>> CEN - European Committee for Standardization
>> DIN - German Institute for Standardization
>> EDC - Eurodata Council Stichting
>> EHIBCC - European Health Industry Business Communications Council
>> HIBCC – Health Industry Business Communication Council (USA)
>> Elmicron - Technical HIBC Support contracter for HIBC integration and quality control
>> ISO - International Organization for Standardization
The HIBC code offers the capacity to adopt manufactures product references (REF.) at length of 2 to 18 characters alphanumeric. By carrying variable product references which are 1:1 with the human readable prints on the package labels HIBC avoids second references and second data base entries. HIBC is a straight forward system featuring “one product – one number – one code”. Users appreciate manufacturers HIBC code for reasons of processing one product code only, equal to catalogue and other printed REF numbers.
HIBC standards are conforming to ISO standards for Product labelling e.g. with the Barcode standard ISO 22742 and the RFID standard ISO 17366, both for marking of product packages. GHTF recommends common standards in general, where HIBC is one of, but being optimized to health care requirements.
The Joined Working Group AIDC develops optimized solutions on users demand. Latest development is in role out since 2011: The electronic data communication solution “PaperEDI”. Receivers of goods can capture shipment contents by “ONE SCAN” only using the “EDI Mark” printed on shipment papers or transport labels.
Another invention was the “Unique Identification Mark - UIM” for surgical instruments and small health care items such as vials and cryos. UIM has been adopted as DIN 66401 for general use.
EHIBCC supplies free access specifically for the members e.g. the HIBC standards but also the quality tool HIBISCAN and the HIBC Primary Code generator for data entry to data base projects as “UBB” in Turkey.
emblemThe HIBC emblem attached to linear or 2D barcode or to RFID tags tells the operator “read here”, here is the HIBC code, here are the traceability data. The HIBC emblem is specifically valuable for the users if other codes may appear on product packages.
HIBC codes are unique by the HIBC flag “+” but also by the Issuing Agency and Company Identification codes according to “ISO/IEC 15459 Unique Identification”. HIBC is interoperable with any other codification system recognised by ISO standards for Barcode and RFID. At the point of use, specifically in Hospitals, HIBC coded products get scanned and processed jointly with products marked with EUROCODE (Blood products), GS1 codes, PZN (Medicinal products), UIM direct markings, etc.
for the manufacturers as for distributors, hospitals and doctors. HIBC is valuable for the whole supply chain and for hospital internal data capture.
see HIBC users day and other events.
Your contact to the HIBC support team
How does the "Health Industry Bar Code (HIBC)" and what opportunities does this standard for a worldwide automatic data communication in the health system?
The most important information about HIBC can be found here.