Blogs
November 20, 2025 / November 20, 2025 by Gina Breckenridge
The final phase of the Drug Security Supply Chain Act (DSCSA) implementation marks a critical moment for hospital pharmacies, drug manufacturers, and supply chain leaders. The goal of the DSCSA is to protect patients by stopping counterfeit, stolen, or harmful drugs from entering our pharmaceutical supply chain.Beyond meeting regulatory requirements, this milestone offers an opportunity to transform medication management. This modernized approach eliminates outdated manual processes and ultimately improves patient safety by providing end-to-end visibility across the entire medication journey. At the forefront of this transformation is Intelliguard, a trusted leader in RFID-enabled medication and supply chain management solutions. With over 25 years of proven success in health systems across North America, Intelliguard’s Mira Ecosystem is setting the standard for accuracy, automation, and actionable intelligence in critical medication tracking.
Hospital pharmacies still rely on disconnected data across a variety of systems, including electronic health records (EHRs), medication administration systems, automatic dispensing cabinets, and spreadsheets—all of which capture a portion of inventory data, from location and usage to expiration and replenishment needs. When data is conflicting or missing across systems, pharmacists are left to guess which system is the single source of truth, which can disrupt workflows and increase the risk of billing errors, duplicate testing, or delayed care. Aside from spending time sifting through multiple programs and screens, navigating disconnected systems makes it difficult for providers to answer the following critical questions in real time:
Intelliguard’s patented RFID technology bridges these gaps by transforming medication management into a connected, data-driven process. RFID-tagged medications can be automatically identified, located, and verified without manual barcode scanning—creating a digital record or “source of truth” that follows every unit of medication across a hospital’s internal supply chain. This automation streamlines operations, improves compliance confidence, and frees clinical and pharmacy teams from the administrative burden of manual verification.
RFID-powered medication management systems can enhance medication safety and DSCSA compliance while addressing inefficiencies with current medication inventory management. For example, RFID tags that meet GS1 standards are readable anywhere, creating consistency and interoperability across the medication supply chain, and meeting one of the key track and trace requirements of DSCSA—maintaining accurate, electronic transaction information. Intelliguard’s RFID tags follow GS1 standards, which means they are fully interoperable and can be read by existing systems across the healthcare industry. Unlike competitors that use proprietary tags, our tags are not restricted to one platform and do not create compatibility issues. Because they are GS1-compliant, Intelliguard’s RFID tags can be read accurately and reliably by the broad range of systems already used in hospitals and across the medication supply chain. RFID tags can store a variety of data, including the DSCSA-required information such as Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), Serial Number, Lot Number, and Expiration Date. To further streamline pharmacy processes, hospitals can partner with drug manufacturers like Fresenius Kabi and Cencora to purchase pre-tagged or source-tagged medications. Opting for source-tagged medications can significantly reduce the risk of counterfeit or illegitimate drugs.
Mira Intelligence, a cloud-based software, turns RFID data into actionable intelligence for leadership teams. It delivers a real-time, unified view of medication movement and usage trends across departments and facilities. Mira Intelligence highlights opportunities for cost savings (e.g., opportunities to reduce waste and excess inventory) that would be impossible to achieve with outdated systems—turning once fragmented data into actionable insights.
With this visibility, pharmacy and supply chain leaders can:
Instead of reacting to inventory gaps, Mira Intelligence enables proactive, data-backed decision-making, making supply chain management visual and straightforward so pharmacy teams can act quickly and confidently.
With unmatched read accuracy, Intelliguard’s RFID hardware is trusted by more than 600 hospitals and health systems across North America to deliver the precision required for critical medication tracking.
Whether managing high-value inventory in the central pharmacy or controlled substances in the operating room, RFID-powered systems are built to ensure every dose is accounted for, and every transaction/dispense is automatically documented.
This level of accuracy and visibility further helps hospital pharmacies remain in compliance with DSCSA regulations, as each RFID-tagged medication is fully traceable throughout its journey (from the drug manufacturer to the point of care). Additionally, Intelliguard’s RFID technology is GS1-compliant, meaning each tagged medication includes a GLN and a GTIN.
When these RFID-powered hardware solutions are paired with Mira Intelligence, clinical leaders can view real-time medication tracking, usage trends, and forecasts to further optimize pharmacy operations.
With the final DSCSA deadline for large dispensers in effect as of November 2025, hospital pharmacies must ensure electronic traceability of critical medications at the package level, also referred to as “unit-level traceability.” The Mira Ecosystem™ directly supports these requirements by:
The result is a compliant, connected, and efficient supply chain that protects both patients and staff from the risks posed by counterfeit or illegitimate drugs. As pharmacy and supply chain leaders navigate the final phase of DSCSA implementation in 2026 and beyond, the organizations that thrive will be those that turn data into actionable insights. This is achieved through the integration of advanced technologies—including intelligent hardware and software—and automation, with a common goal: unprecedented inventory transparency that will ultimately add a layer of safety to our pharmaceutical supply chain.