The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Library of Medicine have partnered to launch a portal making unique device identification information available to the public.
In 2013, the FDA issued a rule requiring medical devices to be labeled with a unique device identifier. Those devices would be scanned and the information uploaded to a global unique device identifier database so that individual devices could be tracked through the healthcare supply chain system.
The FDA and NLM's new website AccessGUDID allows the public — including patients, caregivers, healthcare providers, hospitals and industry players — to search the database.
The website is still in its beta phase and is accepting comments and suggestions to improve the website. The FDA and NLM plan to expand the website's search and web service capabilities in the future.
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