Resolvers

The Internet's Address Book

September 13th, 2022

John Winkler | Chief Product Officer

What exactly does it mean when someone says they have configured a “resolver?” This quick post will explain the concept of a resolver, how Trust.med is using resolvers to address DSCSA compliance, and how you can start using resolvers today.

How Do Resolvers Work?

A resolver is a server that acts like an address book for all of the web pages found on the internet. Much like your home or a business, web pages also have addresses. These addresses are called Internet Protocol addresses or IP address for short. IP addresses are numerical labels much like the street address on a home or business. Here is an example of an IP address: 192.0.2.1

Much like physical businesses we routinely visit, it's uncommon to identify the location of a webpage by its address. Instead we refer to the places we visit by using their well known name, or identifier, they have chosen to represent their business (e.g. McDonalds, Facebook, etc.)

Copy and paste “http://172.217.4.78” into your browser and you will find...

This system of using easy to understand names instead of IP addresses to locate webpages and data is called the Domain Name System (DNS). An "Address Book" system for the internet.

The DNS resolver was created in 1983 to solve the issue of allowing names to be assigned to the growing numbers of computers connected to the “web”.

How Does the Healthcare Industry use Resolvers?

Like DNS resolvers, GS1 has built a resolver schema to allow for the identification of locations, or endpoints, for their standardized numerical product and location identifiers. This allows individuals and companies to find the location of an endpoint by knowing the well known GS1 identifier (i.e. GLN, GTIN, etc.).

Resolvers allow Drug Supply Chain entities to list the locations of information (endpoints) for their products and physical locations in astandardized way. Making it easy for computers or humans to access the informational endpoints and follow instructions.

Since there is no standard methodology for organizing information on a corporate website, this method of making information discoverable provides standardization facilitating interoperability between companies, systems, and data.

How Trust.med Fits In

Through our partnership with the Top Level Domain (TLD) .med, Trust.med is perfectly situated to allow the industry to take advantage of the “Address Book” style system of a DNS resolver. Our resolvers utilize the schemas put in place by GS1 and pair them with another GS1 standard called the 'Digital Link Standard'. Digital Link standardizes the format or a URL and for the healthcare industry - how question is asked.

Trust.med establishes webpages for each product's GTIN or location's GLN and provides a resolver for the specific drug product or locations associated information. All information presented by the resolver is controlled by the authoritative Drug Supply Chain entity (Manufacturer, Distributor, etc.)

Our endpoint control software found in the dashboard allows manufacturers to easily create endpoints for everything from EPCIS files to eLeaflets. Giving the manufacturer the ability to communicate with trading partners, patients, and technology providers consistently in a standardized way.

Trust.med provides interoperable technology for you to communicate where data lives for your products & locations while giving you software utilities to exchange data & communicate with your partners.

View the Trust.med linkset for GTIN# 0031234564320 by clicking here https://00312345654320.med/

Resolver’s are address book like systems for data and information locations (endpoints)
Resolver's have been around since the early 80’s and are a safe and trusted technology
Trust.med works off of the GS1 compliant resolver specification
Resolver’s point users to places on the web in a standardized way
Trust.med provides an easy to use system for drug manufacturers to provide information to trading partners

How To Start Using Resolvers for your Endpoints

If you are a manufacturer, reach out to us and begin using resolvers by loading your GTINs or GLNs into our resolver system. Our team will assist you in adding endpoints and ensure that you provide all of your DSCSA data locations to your authorized trading partners.

Trading partners can already visit GTIN based resolvers by going to "theGTIN#".med. If the GTIN.med address you entered doesn’t immediately provide information, tell your upstream manufacturer that you would like to access their endpoints through our resolver.