An identifier is provided to a medical device such as a syringe to uniquely identify the medical device. For a syringe, the unique identifier may be in the form of a bar code printed onto the thumb press, stem, or both at the plunger of the syringe. The bar code may be a 2-dimensional bar code or a 1-dimensional bar code. Alternatively, an RFID tag may be attached to the plunger, for example fitted to or embedded into the thumb press. The unique identifier provides, at minimum, the manufacturing data unique to the syringe so that the history of the syringe may be readily traced and associated with the medical records of the patient the syringe is used for.