The Challenge

The delivery of vaccines and other pharmaceuticals to underdeveloped regions presents a unique challenge for cold chain logistics. On one hand, the length and complexity of the supply chain greatly increases the risk of temperature excursions. At the same time, the lack of infrastructure at the receiving end means that implementing a “cold chain of custody” with traditional temperature logging options is difficult or impossible. Smart passive loggers offer an alternative path to cold chain security that provides significantly better traceability, security, and ease of use.

Traditional Options

Historically, options for temperature logging of vaccine shipments have been limited to traditional logging options, usually with limited success.

USB Passive Tags

The standard for temperature monitoring in critical cold chain applications, such as pharmaceuticals, is the passive temperature tag. Devices are activated by the sender, usually by pressing a button, and then included in the package being shipped. When the package is received, the tag is read by the recipient (usually using a PC with a USB drive), checked for temperature excursions, and uploaded or emailed for future reference.

Passive tags, however, don’t do particularly well in situations where the sender, rather than the recipient, has responsibility for the chain of custody, such as vaccine deliveries to remote villages. These recipients typically have someone receiving the shipment who can check the tag for a simple go/no go indicator, but plugging in a USB, checking excursions, and uploading or sending data files is likely to be a “bridge too far”.

Cellular Loggers

Cellular tags thatuse cellular communications offer one alternative, since they transmit datacontinually (as long as coverage exists) and thus provide the sender with temperature data up to the point of delivery. Unfortunately, for most remotevaccine deliveries, recovery and reuse of the devices is problematic. Sincereal-time cellular monitors are, for the moment, prohibitively expensive to besingle-use, they aren’t suitable for many vaccine deliveries.

Temp Strips

The complexity of USB tagsand the cost of cellular loggers often leaves logistics managers with temp strips, sometimes called go/no go strips, as the only option.  Temp strips aren’t considered loggers in thenormal sense since they don’t record any history. Usually, they indicate atemperature excursion by a darkening of one of the indicating circles, andlonger excursions are shown in larger circles.

Unfortunately, temp strips carry with them significant disadvantages. As they aren’t actual dataloggers, there’s no data collected at all, no history kept, and no chain ofcustody for the shipment. In addition, there’s no record of the temperaturehistory saved for future reference in case problems arise.

Another Option – Smart Passive Loggers

So-called smart passive loggers offer an alternative approach that combines the data-richrecording of USB and cellular loggers with the simplicity of temp strips. Byutilizing the wireless interfaces of now-ubiquitous smartphones, the complexityand tediousness of USB loggers is eliminated. At the same time, connectingthrough a smartphone allows these loggers to attach additional information tothe recording, such as location, shipment details, and even photographs. Theycan even provide notifications automatically back to the sender.

An important feature of smart passive loggers such as sensified.io’s Seguro 150 is the ability to interact with the logger without the need for a mobile app. This is particularly important in outbound workflows such as remote vaccine delivery, where delivery process for the recipient needs to be as “frictionless” as possible. If the mobile app isn’t available, tapping the logger with a smart phone simply opens a web page instead of the app, and the recipient still has access to the full temperature history.

Walk-Through: Remote Vaccine Delivery

To illustrate, let’s take a closer look at an example of this outbound workflow, an NGO shipping vaccines to a remote village.

To begin, the NGO employee packs the vaccines in a cold box or FPCB (freeze preventative cold box), along with the icepacks. They then tap the logger with their smartphone, which displays the logger details on their phone. At this point, they can add the logger into the cold box, seal it, and prepare it for shipping.

The NGO employee then starts the recording on their smartphone, setting parameters like start delay and temperature thresholds using the on-screen menu. They can also add items like tracking numbers, lot numbers, and even photos.

In sensified.io’s sender-centric mode, the originator marks the start of the recording, either through the mobile app or the website, as usual. They also set the appropriate thresholds for the product being shipped, and can attach additional information such as tracking numbers and even photos of the shipment.

While the shipment is in transit, the logger continues to record the temperature inside the cold box. Being a passive device, the logger will not send real-time alerts for any temperature excursions, but will record them for viewing by the recipient.

When the shipment reaches its destination, the recipient removes the logger from the cold box and taps it with their smart phone. A web page will be displayed, showing the temperature history and any excursions. The recipient is also able to download a PDF or Excel file containing the temperature data.

At the same time, all of the recorded data is stored in the cloud, where it can be retrieved by the NGO at any time, using any of the parameters attached to the recording, such as tracking number or lot number. This happens automatically, without any effort from the recipient of the shipment.

Finally, the NGO will receive a notification that the shipment has been received, along with the temperature history. This is often an invaluable time saver, since the NGO can be ready to discuss any excursions in the shipment, and can even proactively reach out to the shipment’s recipient if necessary.

We should note here that most smart passive loggers require a smartphone with an Internet connection, which may not be available in some isolated cases. Many NGOs we have spoken with, however, believe that cell service is nearly ubiquitous in the areas they serve (more so than a water supply),as it is a cornerstone of any economic development strategy.

Conclusion

Smart passive loggers leverage advances in mobile, wireless and cloud technologies and are an important advancement in logging technology. They are an excellent alternative to traditional options for remote vaccine delivery, as they combine the ease-of-use of temp strips with the data-rich interface of cellular loggers, all for around the same cost as USB loggers.

In this whitepaper we’ve used remote vaccine delivery as an example application for the unique outbound model that smart passive loggers provide, but they’re equally applicable to other deliveries, such as pharmaceuticals to medical offices, medical devices to hospitals, or even high-value pharmaceuticals sent directly to patients.

‍