An evaluation of the CODABAR symbol in blood-banking automation

The CODABAR system has been used in blood banking automation since 1976 when it was introduced by 16 blood centers and transfusion services throughout the United States in a test program coordinated by the American Blood Commission Committee for Commonality in Blood Banking Automation. Since then CODABAR has been used in sample identification on Groupamatic and Technicon automated blood-typing equipment, in the labeling of blood products and in their distribution. It is widely used by a number of blood centers in the United States and has been adopted by the 14 regional blood centers in the United Kingdom, as well as blood centers in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Japan. Some properties of the CODABAR symbol that are relevant to the high accuracy requirements of blood banking are described and preliminary test data are presented.