The Lower Silesian Oncology Center is the first hospital in Poland to install Blulog's wireless solution for temperature monitoring. The M2M technology enables the medical staff to maintain correct conditions during transport and storage of drugs, and above all to save their time, previously dedicated to manual temperature verification.

Drugs, vaccines, blood and other biological materials are extremely sensitive to all temperature variations. They must be kept and transported at all times within a precisely set temperature range - a 24/7 monitoring is thus needed, saturdays and sundays incleded.

Among other most temperature-sensitive drugs, we can mention:
*Cytotoxic drugs (anticancer) - for many of them, the temperature during transport or storage should not be lower more than 2° and higher than 8°C. Any breaches can cause their quality reduction or loss.
PBlood and blood-based preparations - the law imposes their constant and very precise monitoring in all the medical centers.

To have a written proof of temperature history for transported and stored products, hospitals and other medical institutions in Poland generally currently use either simple thermometers requiring manual reading and creating special written reports or data loggers that must be connected to the computer in order to complete data reading. Nevertheless, there is a possibility to automatize the process in a way to save time of the medical staff and to enable real-time alert in case of cold chain breaches.

Temperature monitoring in hospitals - now and then

Polish-French company Blulog has elaborated a temperature monitoring solution based on a revolutionary M2M (machine-to-machine) technology. Credit-card sized data loggers measuring temperature every 10 minutes, several years of autonomy, data encrypted, an easy-to-use application and high precision - this, in a nutshell, is the solution Blulog has come up with. This new, remote and real-time temperature monitoring system has been recently adopted - for the first time in hospitals - by the Lower Silesian Oncology Center in Wroclaw.

Until now, the medical staff had to:
-Be constantly engaged in control procedures
-Manually create reports
-Rely on a solution of very limited functionalities regarding complex control of the entire hospital

Moreover, the previously used solutions was very problematic especially during transport of products - it was difficult to organize a suitable control of thermal conditions during transport of products - it was difficult to organize a suitable control of thermal conditions during the whole process. Currently, thanks to the solution elaborated by Blulog, cytotoxic drugs produced by the Lower Silesian Oncology Center Drug Preparation Laboratory are delivered to the Clinical Public n°1 in Wroclaw in NFC-connected isothermal boxes The implemented solution allows also to control the transport of medicines to affiliates located in Legnica (more than 70 km) and Jelenia Gora (more than 110 km).Blulog's devices guarantees the highest quality of transported products.

The implementation of the complex temperature monitoring system allows to:

-monitor and analyse conditions in every area of the hospital, where the drugs and other temperature-sensitive products are stored - among others in warehouses, hospitals departments, diagnostics laboratories, operating rooms, cabinets and studies. All of the "sensitive" areas are monitored.

-Implement new standards - medical staff responsible for drugs' efficacy has obtained a new tool enabling to control the conditions where they are kept, as well as to access the information which allows to optimize the cold store equipment.

-Better manage the human resources - the medical staff, previously responsible for temperature controlling, has gained much time

Piotr Steciwko, Vice Head of the Pharmacy in Lower Silesian Oncology Center in Wroclaw: - We have constant access to real-time data and to the history of measurements, which allows us to know precisely in what conditions the drugs were kept from delivery to the moment of giving them to patients. Assuring the highest quality of therapy is our biggest priority and maintaining correct conditions during storage and transport can greatly influence the results. Moreover, the applied solution is very easy to use and the data we get can help us optimizing our cold store equipment and air conditioners to keep the conditions at a suitable level at all times.

Machine to machine - how does it work?

To assure the highest security of data, the provided system is entirely protected and encrypted, resistant to all possible manipulations of third parties. From the hospital's point of view, the new solution is more ergonomic.

Jeremy Laurens, Sales and Marketing Director at Blulog: - Our devices measure the temperature with average precision of +/- 0.2 °C within the range from 0 to 30 °C and +/- 0.4 °C at the rest of the range. Users can choose their own limits and get immediate alerts in case of breaches. Precise data is stored in a secure server. We can also generate reports and graphs. Another value is that users can receive notifications immediately in case of any divergence.

Temperature monitoring is possible thanks to two technologies: NFC (Near Field Communication used to proximity payments) and RF/NFC (radio transmission). In the first case (which is used by the hospital for temperature monitoring during transport) special personalizable diodes inform about breaches. The other solution (RF/NFC) implemented in the hospital itself is even more comfortable for users - in case of breaches an email or SMS is automatically sent to alarm authorized staff. To read the data, users can also use either an NFC-enabled smartphone or a reader.

Leszek Zukrowski, Business Development Director at Blulog: - Our cooperation with the Lower Silesian Oncology Center has allowed us to bring new level of quality to temperature control in the healthcare sector. We have recently received many signals that the implementation of our solution is perceived as a new standard among healthcare companies, not only in Poland, but in the entire Europe.

The infrastructure we built enables to introduce many other functionalities in order to automate existing processes. The solution we present is an example of a new business model corresponding to principles of industry 4.0.