POST 01009E : TEMPERATURE MONITORS

POST 01009E : TEMPERATURE MONITORS 10 November 2006 _____________________________________ This posting contains two contributions. The first, from Andrew Garnett (mailto:[email protected]) from the United Kingdom, is a short piece of information. Please note the now functional link to the PQS website at : http://www.who.int/immunization_standards/vaccine_quality/pqs/en/index.html The second contribution is from Andrea Berlinger (mailto:[email protected]) from Switzerland. Our policy so far has been not to publish contributions that could be considered as advertisement. Andrea admits a kind of embarrassment at writing to TechNet. It shouldn't be so. Industry has been a constructive partner to EPI and has helped improve technologies for immunization. Many TechNet members come from the industry, they attend our meetings and present their products. Our policy should then be flexible I believe to allow members from industry express themselves and have their products known to programme managers if it is not in an outright advertisement mode. TechNet does not endorse products, the PIS/PQS system is there for that function and it is for programme managers to decide what they want for their programme after having reviewed all available information. I would appreciate your opinion on this very much. Your Community Facilitator.... _____________________________________ Dear Claude, In Post 998E Margot Terrell-Jenkins describes the Temp Trak temperature monitoring system. This is one of a number of similar event recorder systems. These systems are specifically covered by a specification and verification protocol in the forthcoming PQS E06 section. Regards, Andrew Garnett ----------------------------------- Dear all, With much interest I am following this discussion. I always hesitated to make a contribution since I am representing a manufacturer of monitoring equipment. However in this case I think it might be useful for TechNet members to know that now low cost thermometers exist, that are monitoring the actual temperature of the fridges as well as showing alarms in case of violation of the threshold temperatures. In addition the display shows all alarms during the past 30 days. With help of the history mode the duration of every violation as well as min/max temperatures per each day can be read out too. The idea behind this device was to: 1. avoid manipulation of the recording of the min/max temperatures into the forms that are used in the field every day. So supervisors can be sure that records are correctly filled in and 2. get in a very easy and quick way an overview of what has happened to this particular fridge during the past 30 days. 3. register continously - also during long holidays and week-ends. Due to the history-mode even the duration (not only the min/max temperature!) of an eventual violation - can be read out. Immediate and appropriate actions can be taken with help of this information. 4. enable to improve the cold chain management of the fridges with a low cost device in particular out in the field where costly and sophisticated temperature logger systems are not appropriate. If you would like to get further information about this device please feel free to contact us anytime or also visit our web-page. We will be more than pleased to assist you in finding best solutions. Kind regards, Andrea Berlinger Schwyter BERLINGER & CO. AG, Switzerland ______________________________________________________________________________ All members of the TechNet21 e-Forum are invited to send comments on any posting or to use the forum to raise a new discussion or request technical information in relation to immunization services. The comments made in this forum are the sole responsibility of the writers and do not in any way mean that they are endorsed by any of the organizations and agencies to which the authors may belong. ______________________________________________________________________________ Visit the TECHNET21 Website at http://www.technet21.org You will find instructions to subscribe, a direct access to archives, links to reference documents and other features. ______________________________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to : mailto:[email protected] Leave the subject area BLANK In the message body, write unsubscribe TECHNET21E ______________________________________________________________________________ The World Health Organization and UNICEF support TechNet21. The TechNet21 e-Forum is a communication/information tool for generation of ideas on how to improve immunization services. It is moderated by Claude Letarte and is hosted in cooperation with the Centre de coopération internationale en santé et développement, Québec, Canada (http://www.ccisd.org) ______________________________________________________________________________