Hioki Wireless Voltage/Temp Logger LR8515 for Temperature Monitoring of Transportation

Hioki Wireless Voltage/Temp Logger LR8515 for Temperature Monitoring of Transportation of Medical Packages

What are Medical Packages?

Medical packages consist of pharmaceutical products such as drugs as well as biomedical items like vaccines, blood, human organs, and tissues for transplantations. These products, especially biomedical products, require a strict storage and transportation temperature as they are easily affected by temperature changes.

Figure 1.0 Examples of Medical Packages

Transportation of Medical Packages and the Importance of Temperature Monitoring

Temperature fluctuations can affect the potency of the medical packages, compromise the safety for usage, and cause irreversible damages to the entire product batch, which leads to financial losses [1].

For example, organs for organ transplantation process require a temperature of 4°C to 8°C for organ preservation. A higher temperature will result in hypoxic injury to the organs while a lower temperature from the range increases the risk of cold injury with protein denaturation [2].

The current Covid-19 pandemic has seen various pharmaceutical companies producing their version of vaccines in a race against time to stop the pandemic. Figure 2.0 below shows the various vaccine manufacturer’s vaccine storage temperature requirements. This storage temperature requirement needs to be strictly complied with to ensure the vaccines functionality and viability are protected.

Figure 2.0 COVID-19 vaccines storage temperature requirement of various manufacturer

Hence, temperature monitoring during the transportation of the medical packages is very important as this is where temperature fluctuations are most likely to happen. The transportation time can vary from short to long hours depending on the logistics flow, geographical destinations, and procedures along the process (see Figure 3.0 for an example of a pharmaceutical distribution process flow).

Figure 3.0 Pharmaceutical distribution flow to hospital

A typical temperature monitoring procedure of medical packages, such as organs for transplantation, involves a data logger placement together with the dispatch package to record the temperature fluctuations during transportation (Figure 4.0). The data can only be downloaded for viewing upon arrival at the destination to check for any temperature abnormality.

Figure 4.0 Typical temperature monitoring procedure for transportation of medical package

Hioki Wireless Voltage/Temp Logger LR8515 for Medical Package Transportation Temperature Monitoring

Hioki’s Wireless Voltage/Temp Logger LR 8515 with Hioki 9810 K-type thermocouple and combo of multi-channel Hioki Wireless Logging Station LR8410 can be used for continuous real-time temperature monitoring during the transportation of medical packages.

Figure 5.0 shows the set-up of the Hioki data loggers for real-time temperature monitoring during the medical package’s transportation

Figure 5.0 Hioki Data Loggers set-up for real time temperature monitoring

The pocket-sized LR8515 together with 9810 K-type thermocouples are placed in the refrigerator section together with the medical packages, and data is transmitted wirelessly via Bluetooth technology to LR8410 placed in the driver’s cabin. The LR8410 comes with a built-in HTTP remote server function to transmit the data from LR8515 for viewing via a web browser on a real-time basis. This remote function is only available through a router and local data sim card connected to the LR8410. The following are the other key advantages of Hioki’s data loggers for real-time temperature monitoring for medical packages transportation.

1) Easy wireless setup The LR8410 comes with Hioki’s Quick Set function, where any logging modules within range will be automatically detected and registered. The LR8410 comes with Hioki’s Quick Set function, where any logging modules within range will be automatically detected and registered.

2) Backup function in data loggers The LR8515 has a built-in buffer memory that enables measurement data to be saved if there’s a temporary communication disruption. The data is re-sent to LR8410 once communications are restored. This ensures a complete data record for the entire transportation trip.

3) Wide temperature range measurement with very low measurable temperature The LR8515 (using K-type thermocouple for the measurement process) can measure temperature as low as -200° C. The measurable temperature range is between -200° C to 999.9° C.

4) Long battery life The LR8515 features a power-saving function that automatically turns on the Bluetooth® circuit during predefined periods. This helps to preserve the battery power since the Bluetooth function is not operating continuously.

Hioki’s Data Loggers combo for temperature monitoring of biomedical packages ensures that the temperature during the transportation process is well documented for peace of mind on the safety and reliability of the products.