Healthcare Barcodes
Pharmaceutical and medical device identification. Choose a format below to generate one for free — no sign-up required.
Healthcare Barcodes formats
About healthcare barcodes
Healthcare barcoding exists to answer one question at the bedside and on the production line: is this exactly the right product, from the right batch, still in date. That is more than an identifier, which is why these formats carry structured data rather than a bare number.
HIBC is the Health Industry Bar Code standard, printed as either Code 128 or Code 39, combining a labeler identification code with the labeler's own product and packaging data. Pharmacode is a different animal entirely: it is a printing-control code, read at very high speed on packaging lines, deliberately tolerant of the print variation those lines produce. It encodes a number rather than text, can be read in either direction, and in its two-track form uses colour as well as position.
If you are labelling a medical device for a regulated market, the symbol is the last step, not the first. Which identifiers you must carry is set by the device regulations that apply to you and by the issuing agency you are registered with — the barcode is how you print what those rules already require.
Healthcare Barcodes — frequently asked questions
They are two issuing systems for the same job. GS1 and HIBCC both issue identifiers used in regulated device and pharmaceutical labelling; which one applies depends on which your organisation is registered with. The symbology may even be identical — the difference is the data structure inside it and who assigned your prefix.