Electronic shelf labels for the pharmacy fridge.

What is in a pharmacy fridge, and what is not

Two different worlds share the fridge, and labels only make sense in one of them.

The dispensing area. Medicines that need cold storage, such as insulin, are kept in the pharmacy fridge and handed over at the counter. Before opening, the leaflet for a product like Humalog says to store it at 2 °C to 8 °C without freezing, and after first use at below 30 °C (Lilly, in Spanish); the Cochrane review of human insulin gives the same interval for unopened vials and cartridges. That fridge is not a display: customers do not open it or compare prices. A label there would at most be an internal aid for the team.

The chilled parapharmacy shelf. Here there is a buying decision. These are products whose packaging says to keep them cold, or that the pharmacy chooses to keep cold for quality reasons: probiotics labelled for refrigerated storage, some serums and cosmetics with sensitive actives, eye drops and hygiene solutions the manufacturer recommends cold. The exact list depends on each brand and pack. What is sold from a chilled display has a free price and promotions, and that is where a label fits.

This split is the first question in any project: how many fridge slots are for sale and how many are for dispensing. The number varies a lot from one pharmacy to the next, and sizing comes from counting them one by one, not from working out fridge length times a unit price.

Temperature: the figure that rules

FarmaConnect's standard shelf labels are specified for 0 to 40 °C. In a 2-8 °C chamber, with cold spots near the evaporator, they sit right at the lower limit. The official website lists two models with an extended range:

Figures from FarmaConnect's official website, pending validation. The website does not say under what conditions the 10-year battery figure is calculated. Batteries usually deliver less in the cold, so ask the manufacturer for the figure at 2-8 °C.

The small size has a practical reason. The edge of a fridge shelf is narrow, and the price often has to be read through glass. The 2.66" fits a price, a short name and a code; the 3.5" also takes a promotion or pack size.

How cold affects e-paper screens (slower refresh, contrast, battery) is explained in general terms, for any sector, in the technical guide to labels in the cold. Here we stay with what is specific to pharmacy.

Condensation: what is known and what is not

The problem appears when the door opens. Room air, warmer and more humid, touches cold surfaces and leaves water on them. A label that leaves a chamber and enters the room, during restocking or cleaning, does the same.

Three questions decide whether it is a real problem, and all three are answered by the manufacturer's datasheet, not by a sales adjective:

1. Ingress protection of the casing and frame against moisture.
2. Screen and seal behaviour after cold-warm cycles.
3. Placement: a label on the shelf edge, away from the evaporator draught and the door seal, gets less wet than one on the back wall.

For now, FarmaConnect does not publish the IP rating of K-266-C or K-350-C. Until it does, the honest approach is to ask for it in writing before fitting out a fridge, and to test one shelf for a week in the actual pharmacy, with its actual door openings.

Mounting on shelf, door and chamber

A pharmacy fridge is usually one of three types, and each changes the mount:

• Glass-door display unit, with wire or sheet-metal shelves: the label must be readable with the door closed and must not cover the product.
• Upright cabinet fridge, with the inside given over to products for sale: a strip or rail on the shelf edge is the usual answer.
• Small cold room: access is rare and the label is read more from inside than from outside.

We have no published information on which mounts FarmaConnect offers for cold metal (rail, magnet, adhesive, clip). Adhesive can peel with moisture and temperature cycling; a magnet needs a ferromagnetic surface. These are questions to ask and test, not to assume.

What the label can say

An electronic label shows a price, and sometimes a promotion. In the fridge, that can be a parapharmacy item with a free price or, if the two get mixed, a medicine. Advertising medicines to the public is restricted: under article 80 of the consolidated Medicines Guarantees Act (Spain), a medicine advertised to the public cannot be publicly funded, must be usable without a diagnosis or prescription, and must not contain psychotropic or narcotic substances. In practice: no promotions in the fridge for prescription medicines, and caution with any commercial message about a medicine. For a specific doubt, ask your pharmacists' association or sector legal adviser; this page is not a substitute for that advice.

For parapharmacy pricing in general, the rules on unit price display and on discounts against a reference price are covered in the 30-day reference guide.

What changes with the pharmacy software

A fridge label is just another label, synchronised like those on the shelf. When the retail price changes in the pharmacy software, the label changes. In the fridge the gain is concrete: nobody opens the door to swap a paper card, and there are no tickets going soft with the damp. The specifics of integration with each pharmacy software are covered on the electronic labels page, and the sector context in the guide to labels for pharmacies.

How to set up a trial

1. Count the fridge slots that are for sale.
2. Ask in writing for the K-266-C and K-350-C datasheets: range, ingress protection, mounts.
3. Fit three or four labels for a week on the most exposed shelf.
4. Check the image, moisture, adhesion and battery state.
5. Decide how many more.

If you want to take it further, start here.

Sources

1. Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2015, consolidated text of the Medicines Guarantees and Rational Use Act (BOE, in Spanish), article 80
2. Lilly: storage of Humalog (insulin lispro), refrigerated at 2 °C to 8 °C before first use (in Spanish)
3. Cochrane: temperature and storage conditions of human insulin (in Spanish)