Advertorial – submitted by SJC Creative on behalf of Beyond Wireles
PHARMACY FRIDGE TEMPERATURES
ACCURATELY AND COST EFFECTIVELY MONITORED
Automatic temperature monitoring of vaccine fridges has now been legislated in South Africa, bringing the local industry in line with the global best practice for the storage and distribution of vaccines. Pharmacists are now required to have a temperature recording instrument that will record the temperature, as well as an alarm system that in the event of a spike or drop in the fridge’s temperature will notify the pharmacist of the event via SMS and or email.
Vaccines must be stored between 2 and 8˚ C. Temperature excursions outside of this band can reduce and even destroy the effectiveness of these lifesaving drugs. Real time temperature monitoring provides the pharmacist with constant visibility of his temperature, which allows him or her to substantially reduce the risk of the vaccines being damaged.
The South African Pharmacy Council recently published Minimum Standards for the Procurement, Storage and Distribution of Thermolabile Pharmaceutical Products which are all products requiring constant cold storage at product specific temperatures below room temperature, which includes vaccines which are normally stored between 2˚ C and not exceeding 8˚ C.
Prior to the new legislation, pharmacists were only required to manually check their fridge temperatures and record the data twice daily. This manual method is subject to inevitable human error and could have severe ramifications in the current load shedding scenario, where power, for example, could be cut at 18h00 and restored at 04h00 the next morning. In this very real scenario there would be no indication for the pharmacist of the extent or duration of the resultant temperature excursion.
Beyond Wireless, a South African company involved with remote temperature monitoring activities around the globe, has recently launched the ICE3 Remote Temperature Monitoring Device (RTMD) specifically for pharmacy fridges. The device is inexpensive and easy to install: it is attached to a fridge magnetically and has simple DIY cable plug-ins and activation.
The ICE3 automatically monitors:
- the ambient dispensary temperature
- the internal temperature of up to four fridges
- mains power (On / Off)
- fridge door (Open / Closed).
The ICE3 uses a lithium battery pack, which will last for up to five years without any need to replace or recharge the battery.
The data is remotely accessed via a secure web portal, and alarms are sent via both email and SMS to a list of preconfigured recipients. The data is also accessible via an Android, iOS and Windows8 smartphone app, which literally puts your fridge in your pocket.
In 2012, Beyond Wireless obtained its PQS (performance, quality and safety) certification from the World Health Organisation (WHO). This has been key to the company’s expansion, particularly in the field of vaccine fridge monitoring.
Beyond Wireless CEO, Ian Lester said “We are involved in numerous vaccine cold chain managements projects around the world, where the Beyond Wireless platform is being used to evaluate and maintain the cold chain in 26 countries on four continents – UNICEF, the International Committee for the Red Cross; the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) (part of the Clinton Foundation); and the US Government Centre for Disease Control (The CDC) are all users of our system. Closer to home Beyond Wireless has monitored the cold chain of the South African National Blood Service since 2006.
“We have the technology and global experience to ensure that local pharmacists can feel confident that the Beyond Wireless ICE3 is the most reliable, economically efficient and trusted remote temperature monitoring system available”.
The Temperature Issue
A serious and often overlooked problem occurs in fridges in which the temperatures go too low. A fridge that goes below 0˚ C does more harm to a vaccine than a fridge that goes above 8˚ C. Going above 8˚ C, although not ideal, only reduces the shelf life of vaccine, but going below 0˚ C can destroy the live cultures of some vaccines rendering it entirely useless in preventing disease.
The World Health Organization reports over 50% vaccine wastage around the world, and part of this enormous amount of wastage is attributed to poor cold chain management.
Pick n Pay
Pick n Pay Pharmacy has led the pack by installing the Beyond Wireless technology more than five years ago. Dischem has also for many years been using the system at the warehouse and distribution level of their operation, and more recently they too have begun to adopt the technology at the retail end of their business. The remote monitoring technology automatically alerts the responsible pharmacist in the event of temperature excursion by the activation of an alarm which is sent via both email and SMS to a predefined list of recipients.
Sue Jarvis, Head of Pick n Pay’s Pharmacy Division, explains that the Beyond Wireless solution addresses a wide range of possible temperature problems, from faulty fridges to power outages to fridge doors being left open.
Further information is available from: Ian Lester, Chief Executive Officer, Beyond Wireless, Tel: 011 243 2960 or contact via email
Issued on behalf of Beyond Wireless by SJC Creative, Sue Charlton, Contact Tel: 011 794 8170 or 082 579 4263 or contact via email
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