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So cold, it's cool

The IoT has long been touted as the bringer of impressive solutions that change lives. Now the latest developments in the healthcare industry are doing just that.

By Tamsin Oxford
Johannesburg, 03 Nov 2015

Fifty percent of the vaccines that are wasted around the world are lost due to poor cold chain management.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is not about getting a WhatsApp message from your fridge telling you that you're out of milk. It goes far deeper than that. It's about intelligent monitoring and control. It's reams of valuable and insightful data that delivers the right information at the right time. The almost infamous fridge that's used to extol the virtues of the IoT does exist, sort of, but it's mostly surrounded by sarcastic media stories and Minority Report-style hype. It's not much more than a gimmick to grab the attention of the technology-wary consumer. The real technology, the real fridge that connects to the IoT, is actually saving lives.

Think about it. Medicine is constantly evolving and finding new ways to save lives and yet the technology used to transport this medication is the same as it was over 20 years ago. Fortunately, with the advent of the IoT, these old transport and storage solutions are being pulled into the modern world by tiny sensors and simple transmitters.

A common IoT device is an internet-connected sensor that transmits information as and when required. These sensors can be installed throughout the cold chain to continuously track temperatures and can be programmed to generate alerts at specific points. They can determine temperature malfunctions and provide an instant snapshot of any issues being experienced by any vehicle or fridge, no matter where they are in the world. These inventive solutions in the healthcare sector and the development of carefully controlled processes and installations are ensuring medications remain at exact temperatures as they are stored and transported across continents.

Cold, hard facts

According to the World Health Organisation, over 50 percent of the vaccines that are wasted around the world are lost due to poor cold chain management. This is not just when the medications get too hot, but also when they get too cold. In some cases, the vaccine can be destroyed if the temperature drops below 0oC - vaccines must be stored between 2oC and 8oC or else they lose their effectiveness. There has long been a need for systems that can monitor temperature in real time, providing pharmacists with comprehensive visibility and ensuring they are warned in time. This ties in with recent shifts in local legislation around the Government Gazetted Minimum Standards for the Procurement, Storage and Distribution of Thermolabile Pharmaceutical Products.

"Pharmacists are now required to have a temperature recording instrument that will measure the temperature, as well as an alarm system that, in the event of a spike or drop in the fridge, will notify them of the event via SMS and/or e-mail," says Ian Lester, CEO at Beyond Wireless. "Prior to legislation recently published by the South African Pharmacy Council, pharmacists needed only to manually check their fridge temperatures and record the data twice daily. This manual method was subject to inevitable human error and potentially had severe ramifications in the current loadshedding scenario."

Loadshedding is a very real threat. Power could be cut off at 6pm only to be restarted at 4am, resulting in potentially dangerous temperature fluctuations. As a result of these challenges, organisations have been working on the development of IoT solutions that keep the right people informed at the right times. Beyond Wireless recently announced the ICE Remote Temperature Monitoring Device (RTMD) designed specifically for pharmacy fridges. It monitors the ambient dispensary temperature, the internal fridge temperature, mains power and the status of the fridge door. It runs off a lithium battery pack that can last up to five years and is attached to the fridge magnetically with DIY cable plug-ins and activation.

"The data is remotely accessed via a secure web portal and alarms are sent via both e-mail and SMS to a list of preconfigured recipients," says Lester. "The data is accessible via an Android, iOS and Windows 8 smartphone app, putting the fridge into the pharmacist's pocket."

Fifty percent of the vaccines that are wasted around the world are lost due to poor cold chain management.

Simple, yet effective, this is a huge step forward for the healthcare industry. IoT is providing connected healthcare supply chains that mitigate fraud, ensure that medications go to the right places and that the temperature is kept optimum to reduce waste and loss. Solutions are starting to become more prolific as the healthcare industry recognises how IoT can cut costs and improve processes. In Providence, Rhode Island, a group of hospitals known as Lifespan introduced an RFID solution to its 1 200 wireless access points through Stanley Healthcare to actively monitor temperatures for all of its medications.

And closer to home, Vodacom worked with the South African National Blood Services (SANBS) to monitor their refrigeration temperatures on the move. IoT is here and it most definitely is not just hype...

This article was first published in Brainstorm magazine. Click here to read the complete article at the Brainstorm website.

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