Effective pharmaceutical management is vital for healthcare systems, where timely identification of drug expiry dates is crucial to ensure patient safety and regulatory compliance. This paper presents an automated system for drug expiry date detection and email alerting, aimed at enhancing the efficiency and reliability of pharmaceutical management. Traditional manual tracking methods are often prone to errors and inefficiencies, leading to potential health risks. The proposed system automates this process, ensuring prompt notifications to relevant stakeholders. The system features a centralized database for storing drug information, barcode or QR code scanning for data entry, an expiry date detection algorithm, and an integrated email alerting mechanism. The database, managed using MySQL, contains detailed records of each drug, including its name, batch number, manufacturing date, expiry date, and quantity. Barcode or QR code scanners facilitate quick and accurate updates to the database, implemented through a Python-based application. The expiry date detection algorithm runs periodically, comparing current dates with stored expiry dates to identify drugs nearing expiration within a specified threshold, typically 30 days. Upon detection, the system triggers email alerts with detailed drug information sent to pharmacists, healthcare providers, and inventory managers, prompting timely action to prevent the use of expired medications. Testing in a controlled environment with a sample dataset demonstrated that the algorithm accurately identified drugs nearing expiry and generated appropriate email alerts. User feedback indicated significant improvements in efficiency and a reduced risk of expired drug usage. This automated system offers a proactive approach to managing drug inventories, minimizing human error, and enhancing compliance with health regulations. By automating expiry date tracking and alerting, it improves pharmaceutical safety and streamlines inventory management. Future enhancements could include additional notification methods, such as SMS alerts, and expanding the system’s capabilities to manage other aspects of pharmaceutical inventory.
Published in | American Journal of Networks and Communications (Volume 14, Issue 1) |
DOI | 10.11648/j.ajnc.20251401.11 |
Page(s) | 1-9 |
Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Pharmacists, Healthcare Systems, Expired Medications
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APA Style
Friday, E. A., Sorlihu, T. O. (2025). Automated Drug Expiry Detection and Alert System Via Email Notifications. American Journal of Networks and Communications, 14(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajnc.20251401.11
ACS Style
Friday, E. A.; Sorlihu, T. O. Automated Drug Expiry Detection and Alert System Via Email Notifications. Am. J. Netw. Commun. 2025, 14(1), 1-9. doi: 10.11648/j.ajnc.20251401.11
AMA Style
Friday EA, Sorlihu TO. Automated Drug Expiry Detection and Alert System Via Email Notifications. Am J Netw Commun. 2025;14(1):1-9. doi: 10.11648/j.ajnc.20251401.11
@article{10.11648/j.ajnc.20251401.11, author = {Ebole Alpha Friday and Tiamiyu Olalekan Sorlihu}, title = {Automated Drug Expiry Detection and Alert System Via Email Notifications}, journal = {American Journal of Networks and Communications}, volume = {14}, number = {1}, pages = {1-9}, doi = {10.11648/j.ajnc.20251401.11}, url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajnc.20251401.11}, eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajnc.20251401.11}, abstract = {Effective pharmaceutical management is vital for healthcare systems, where timely identification of drug expiry dates is crucial to ensure patient safety and regulatory compliance. This paper presents an automated system for drug expiry date detection and email alerting, aimed at enhancing the efficiency and reliability of pharmaceutical management. Traditional manual tracking methods are often prone to errors and inefficiencies, leading to potential health risks. The proposed system automates this process, ensuring prompt notifications to relevant stakeholders. The system features a centralized database for storing drug information, barcode or QR code scanning for data entry, an expiry date detection algorithm, and an integrated email alerting mechanism. The database, managed using MySQL, contains detailed records of each drug, including its name, batch number, manufacturing date, expiry date, and quantity. Barcode or QR code scanners facilitate quick and accurate updates to the database, implemented through a Python-based application. The expiry date detection algorithm runs periodically, comparing current dates with stored expiry dates to identify drugs nearing expiration within a specified threshold, typically 30 days. Upon detection, the system triggers email alerts with detailed drug information sent to pharmacists, healthcare providers, and inventory managers, prompting timely action to prevent the use of expired medications. Testing in a controlled environment with a sample dataset demonstrated that the algorithm accurately identified drugs nearing expiry and generated appropriate email alerts. User feedback indicated significant improvements in efficiency and a reduced risk of expired drug usage. This automated system offers a proactive approach to managing drug inventories, minimizing human error, and enhancing compliance with health regulations. By automating expiry date tracking and alerting, it improves pharmaceutical safety and streamlines inventory management. Future enhancements could include additional notification methods, such as SMS alerts, and expanding the system’s capabilities to manage other aspects of pharmaceutical inventory.}, year = {2025} }
TY - JOUR T1 - Automated Drug Expiry Detection and Alert System Via Email Notifications AU - Ebole Alpha Friday AU - Tiamiyu Olalekan Sorlihu Y1 - 2025/01/24 PY - 2025 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajnc.20251401.11 DO - 10.11648/j.ajnc.20251401.11 T2 - American Journal of Networks and Communications JF - American Journal of Networks and Communications JO - American Journal of Networks and Communications SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2326-8964 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajnc.20251401.11 AB - Effective pharmaceutical management is vital for healthcare systems, where timely identification of drug expiry dates is crucial to ensure patient safety and regulatory compliance. This paper presents an automated system for drug expiry date detection and email alerting, aimed at enhancing the efficiency and reliability of pharmaceutical management. Traditional manual tracking methods are often prone to errors and inefficiencies, leading to potential health risks. The proposed system automates this process, ensuring prompt notifications to relevant stakeholders. The system features a centralized database for storing drug information, barcode or QR code scanning for data entry, an expiry date detection algorithm, and an integrated email alerting mechanism. The database, managed using MySQL, contains detailed records of each drug, including its name, batch number, manufacturing date, expiry date, and quantity. Barcode or QR code scanners facilitate quick and accurate updates to the database, implemented through a Python-based application. The expiry date detection algorithm runs periodically, comparing current dates with stored expiry dates to identify drugs nearing expiration within a specified threshold, typically 30 days. Upon detection, the system triggers email alerts with detailed drug information sent to pharmacists, healthcare providers, and inventory managers, prompting timely action to prevent the use of expired medications. Testing in a controlled environment with a sample dataset demonstrated that the algorithm accurately identified drugs nearing expiry and generated appropriate email alerts. User feedback indicated significant improvements in efficiency and a reduced risk of expired drug usage. This automated system offers a proactive approach to managing drug inventories, minimizing human error, and enhancing compliance with health regulations. By automating expiry date tracking and alerting, it improves pharmaceutical safety and streamlines inventory management. Future enhancements could include additional notification methods, such as SMS alerts, and expanding the system’s capabilities to manage other aspects of pharmaceutical inventory. VL - 14 IS - 1 ER -