Automating Temperature-controlled Sensors to Better Monitor COVID-19 Vaccine Storage

GHSC-PSM investigated different options and worked together with a supplier before offering a  solution that met CENABI’s needs. The selected system is InTempConnect and was supplied by LABCO. The complete system includes sensors for temperature ranges from - 30/40 °C to 70 °C and from -90 °C to 40 °C, gateways, and a cloud data platform.

InTempConnect sensors enable the temperature of a cold or deep-frozen room to be recorded at up to 1 min intervals. In addition, when the temperature goes outside the established range, InTempConnect sends an alarm signal by email and to the InTempConnect App, so that the appropriate people can take action and prevent a cold chain break. The sensors procured by GHSC-PSM are for deep freezers and cold rooms and will be used in the first phase to monitor the storage temperature of the vaccines in CENABI, the vaccination Megacenter (located at El Salvador Hospital) and at five regional warehouses.

Since the last week of August 2021, the CENABI, Supply Chain, Quality Control and IT teams received training from LABCO to create users on the platform, parameterize the sensors and learn how to use the InTempConnect Apps, which are also used to download sensor information in case they are not connected to the network.

GHSC-PSM continues to facilitate use of the InTempConnect temperature sensors and attends to user questions. GHSC-PSM has trained 17 people on the system. CENABI cold chain staff appreciate the benefits of the InTempConnect system and are now motivated to expand the use of it.

Currently, 18 sensors are installed in the nine CENABI cold rooms, 23 Ultra Freezers and three gateways that connect the sensors to the InTempConnect platform to obtain reports and raise alarms in real time. By the end of January 2022, 10 sensors will be installed in regional cold rooms, five gateways, and 28 sensors will be installed for the Megacenter refrigerators to connect the sensors to the InTempConnect platform, and a total of four gateways will be used. Another 40 sensors will be used in the second phase to monitor the cold chain during the transportation of vaccines from CENABI to vaccination centers.

The CENABI authorities have been receiving alerts when the temperature goes out of established range since September 2021. There are two administrators who configure users, sensors and gateways; eight managers who receive the alerts and once a week they receive a report with the temperatures of each sensor.

CENABI users are now experiencing something they could not have imagined before and now everyone can monitor cold chain temperatures from their cell phones, tablets or laptops from wherever they are, and can be proactive to avoid losing the cold chain of COVID-19 vaccines.