Outbreaks of hepatitis B and C in New York, Oklahoma, and Nebraska were reported between 2000 and 2002, during which it was found that transmission occurred indirectly from one patient to others after exposure to re-used syringes [1]. Similarly, in Seoul, Korea, hepatitis C virus transmission occurred within a large group of patients who were treated in various clinics from 2015 to 2017 [2]. According to the results of an epidemiological investigation, this particular outbreak was strongly associated with the re-use of syringes [2]. Due to safety concerns such as these, data tracking of medical devices from production to use has been proposed as a way to improve medical safety. For example, the International Medical Device Regulators Forum proposed guidelines for its ten member countries as part of the Unique Device Identification (UDI) system. The UDI system is designed to fully monitor the process of delivering medical devices to individual patients by issuing a unique device identifier [3]. Each medical device includes a UDI in human- and machine-readable form using letter codes and barcodes [3].

Syringes are hazardous both patients and the healthcare providers who directly handle them. Needlestick injuries (NIs) are stab wounds from needles that may result in exposure to blood or body fluids; they carry the considerable risk of blood-borne infections, such as HBV, HCV, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). According to a research conducted by the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institution in 2012, there were 8.98 NI cases per 100 beds and 4.29 NI cases per 100 medical personnel in Korea annually [4].

To prevent NI, a number of safety engineered devices (SEDs) have been designed. SEDs are medical devices designed with the intention to prevent hazards and accidents [5]. In the case of safety engineered syringes, needles are covered or bent immediately after being used. However, the introduction of SEDs is not sufficient to reduce the number of NIs. This is because SEDs is need to be manually handled to cover the sharps after use. If healthcare providers are unfamiliar with using SEDs, accidents can still occur. According to a study conducted by Mitchell et al. [6] in 2017, SED-related injuries accounted for 35.3% of all incidents of exposure to blood and/or body fluids in the United States, and it showed an upward stream from 2009 to 2014. In this article, we propose a method to decrease the incidence of NI without changing the existing injection technique and a one-stop solution to automatically dispose of needles and syringe barrels.

The automatic needle destroyer (ANDY) was developed to prevent NI, and usability tests were conducted in several hospitals. The addition of extra features to the ANDY is in progress, such as data collection and automatic identification of used syringes.

Although the ANDY can be used to track the syringe used for each patient within the UDI system, it is often difficult to trace the individual use of syringes because the UDI label is placed on each box of syringes, not each syringe individually. For this reason, Unit of Use Device Identification, in which the indicator is assigned to a single package unit, has been proposed as an alternative. However, this requires healthcare providers to manually enter significant amounts of information. If the ANDY is used to collect data from medical devices automatically, time and labor costs can be reduced remarkably.

Collection of information during syringe disposal can facilitate stock management. In most cases, consumable medical devices are managed using empirical statistics; that is, consumable medical device use is typically measured by periodically noting changes in stock. However, this method does not indicate whether the medical equipment is used for patients or not. It is possible to monitor the real-time usage of syringes if the ANDY collects syringe information during disposal. This system could also be extended to other types of consumable medical devices. However, having the system differentiate between medical devices of different shapes and sizes remains a challenge.