Abbreviated Serialization Terminology You Must Know (Part 2)

In our last article, we looked at the first 20 out of a list of 60 abbreviated Serialization terminologies. Here’s the next 20 list of terminologies. As mentioned previously, new regulations and updated technologies in Serialization lead to changing jargon, abbreviations and terminology. There may be a lot of familiar terms because of common usage, while some may be lesser known.

 

21. HDA – Healthcare Distribution Alliance

An association in America representing healthcare distributors who are responsible for medicines and healthcare products

 

22. HIN – Health Industry Number

A unique identifier used to standardize and catalogue hospitals, providers, suppliers, and all other businesses in the supply chain

 

23. HRI – Human Readable Interpretation

The characters below, beside or above a barcode. They can be used to also manually enter or process barcoded data

 

24. IQ – Installation Qualification

It verifies if a system is properly installed, configured, the documentation is correct and the procedures are approved

 

25. LDAP – Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

An industry standard application protocol that’s used for accessing and maintaining directory information services

 

26. LMS – Line Management System

A system that manages the production line and back-office operations (ERP)

 

27. MAH – Marketing Authorization Holder

The company or license holder that has the authorization to market a medicine or product

 

28. MES – Manufacturing Execution System

A system used in manufacturing to document and track the change from raw materials to finished products

 

29. NDC – National Drug Code

A unique three-segment number used in America for drug products to identify and report. They’re used as a universal product identifier for human drugs

 

30. NEDL – National Essential Drug List

A list of medicines that satisfies a bulk of the population’s healthcare needs

 

31. NTIN – National Trade Item Number

Used for trade items via unique identification across the world. It includes country and company prefix, the company’s own product reference and a check digit

 

32. OEE – Overall Equipment Effectiveness

Measures and identifies the percentage of planned production time that is 100% productive – includes metrics for quality, efficiency and zero downtime

 

33. OQ – Operational Qualification

Performed after meeting all IQ protocols, it’s meant to determine all equipment and processes are performing as per the user and manufacturing requirements

 

34. PEDL – Provincial Essential Drug List

Like NEDL, it’s a list of medicines that satisfies a bulk of a country’s population’s healthcare needs

 

35. PQ – Performance Qualification

A series of tests used to verify whether a system, equipment process performs as expected, consistently under simulated real-world conditions

 

36. RFID – Radio Frequency Identification

A wireless system comprising of two components: tags and readers. It uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags associated with a product

 

37. SAN – Storage Area Network

A specialized network that’s high-speed and it provides block-level network access to storage

 

38. SCAC – Standard Carrier Alpha Code

A code used in the US  to identify transport and vessel operating common carriers

 

39. SDB – Serialization Database

A system used for Level 4 Serialization

 

40. sFTP – Secure File Transfer Protocol

A file protocol for transferring large files online over a secure network