{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,2]],"date-time":"2025-11-02T07:47:40Z","timestamp":1762069660172,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,30]],"date-time":"2022-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1664496000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Funds","award":["LA\/P\/0063\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["LA\/P\/0063\/2020"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Applied Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Counterfeit medicine is still a crucial problem for healthcare systems, having a huge impact in worldwide health and economy. Medicine packages can be traced from the moment of their production until they are delivered to the costumers through the use of Data Matrix codes, unique identifiers that can validate their authenticity. Currently, many practitioners at hospital pharmacies have to manually scan such codes one by one, a very repetitive and burdensome task. In this paper, a system which can simultaneously scan multiple Data Matrix codes and autonomously introduce them into an authentication database is proposed for the Hospital Pharmacy of the Centro Hospitalar de Vila Nova de Gaia\/Espinho, E.P.E. Relevant features are its low cost and its seamless integration in their infrastructure. The results of the experiments were encouraging, and with upgrades such as real-time feedback of the code\u2019s validation and increased robustness of the hardware system, it is expected that the system can be used as a real support to the pharmacists.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/app12199866","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,7]],"date-time":"2022-10-07T22:47:27Z","timestamp":1665182847000},"page":"9866","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Data Matrix Based Low Cost Autonomous Detection of Medicine Packages"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7902-1207","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jos\u00e9","family":"Lima","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"INESC Technology and Science, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"Research Centre of Digitalization and Intelligent Robotics, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Bragan\u00e7a, 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"},{"name":"Laborat\u00f3rio para a Sustentabilidade e Tecnologia em Regi\u00f5es de Montanha (SusTEC), Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Bragan\u00e7a, 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7254-0346","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cl\u00e1udia","family":"Rocha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"INESC Technology and Science, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9278-1929","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lu\u00edsa","family":"Rocha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hospital Pharmacy, Centro Hospitalar de Vila Nova de Gaia\/Espinho, E.P.E., 4434-502 Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4846-271X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paulo","family":"Costa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"INESC Technology and Science, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"55","article-title":"Understanding the Pharmaceutical Value Chain","volume":"18","author":"Aitken","year":"2016","journal-title":"Pharm. 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