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Make finding the right injection product fast and easy.


Make finding the right injection product fast and easy.

The BD Easy Dispensing Packaging System is designed to simplify a complicated product category. Work smarter, not harder.


The Challenge

Patients with diabetes inject insulin using a pen needle or insulin syringe. Both types of injection devices are available in various needle lengths and gauges. Barrel capacities are unique to insulin syringes and add another variable to the process of identifying the correct device for the patient. For busy pharmacists, however, having so many variations and SKUs can make it challenging to locate the exact pen needle or insulin syringe your patient requires. Note: ADA recommendations for patients are to inject with shorter needle lengths (4mm pen needle/6mm insulin syringe needle)1.


The Solution

Medical technology company BD has redesigned their insulin syringe and pen needle packaging to help pharmacists readily identify and dispense the appropriate product for each patient. The BD Easy Dispensing Packaging System organizes pen needles and insulin syringes using bold colors to indicate pen needle length and insulin syringe barrel capacities. The packaging features a combination of color-coding unique to device type and prominent numerals indicating needle lengths. This packaging design was made to help easy product recognition and may help to simplify complexity when arranging pharmacy shelves by lengths of BD Ultra-Fine™ Pen Needles and barrel capacities of BD Insulin Syringes with BD Ultra-Fine™ needle.


In a single case study, BD representatives visited Gerard O’Hare, pharmacist at Jeffrey’s Drug Store in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania who dispenses between 30-35 boxes of pen needles and insulin syringes every week.

• O’Hare was asked to retrieve from stock, a box of BD insulin syringes with a 0.5 mL barrel and 8-millimeter length needle. What he didn't know was he was being timed. (see image BEFORE)

• After doing so, BD reps showed him the BD Easy Dispensing Packaging System and he agreed to have his shelves reorganized to match the image he was shown. (see image BD Easy Dispensing Packaging System)

• O’Hare was then asked again to retrieve the same box of BD Insulin Syringes. Once again, he was unaware he was being timed. This time locating the BD insulin syringes took nearly one-third as long2 with the BD Easy Dispensing Packaging system in place than it did the first time. (see image AFTER)


With O'Hare's permission the product was put back on the shelves in the original position they were found. O'Hare was then asked to reset the shelves according to the BD Easy Dispensing Packaging System Image so he could fully understand how the products should be arranged, which he did. The change took just a few minutes.


The BD Easy Dispensing Packaging System may be helpful to pharmacy staff when searching for a product on shelf.


Efficiency is important to the operation of most pharmacies and providing the appropriate product to the right patient is always a top priority. O’Hare said, “The system looks good, it’s a no-brainer.”


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1 Pharmacologic Approaches to Glycemic Treatment: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes—2019. American Diabetes Association. Diabetes CareJan 2019,42(Supplement 1)S90-S102;DOI:10.2337/dc19-S009. 2 The same individual person using a smart phone stopwatch timed Gerard O’Hare both times (25 secs vs. 18 secs), August 29, 2019.




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