Category Archives: Temperature Indicators

Blood Temp 10 at the AABB annual meeting & CTTXPO in Denver, Colorado

Come see the Shockwatch Blood Temp 10 in action at the AABB annual meeting and CTTXPO in Denver, Colorado Monday, Oct. 14th, 1:30 pm booth 1654.  You can also hear about best practices keep your blood supply safe in our Learning Lab “Before Good Blood Goes Bad.”

Presentation overview:Timestrip Blood Temp 10

Heating, freezing and thawing all affect the viability of blood and blood products and components. Temperature monitoring is a vital step in maintaining the safety of the world’s blood supply, ensuring that blood already known to be safe, remains safe.

A case study will be shared during the presentation to show how temperature indicators not only help identify potentially heat damaged blood but also assist with identifying critical control points within your blood logistics cycle.

According to the WHO around 107 million blood donations are collected globally every year and it is generally accepted that 2% of blood may be discarded.  The use of suitable equipment and good management of blood cold chain are important means of minimizing losses and donated blood.

A lack of product data leads to an unpredictable blood cold chain, which will create an environment of guesswork, assumptions and inaccurate predictions when it comes time to make blood safety and cost-recovery related decisions.

The lack of accurate data due to a poorly designed temperature tracking system will force the disposal of unadulterated blood and create financial loss.  These results are very expensive consequences that can be overcome with the implementation of the Blood Temp 10.  Developing a system of bag level temperature monitoring will deliver the results required to effectively build and maintain predictable cold chain management, allow for a greater level of cost recovery and drive awareness throughout the blood cold chain.

Bacterial contamination of blood components is the most frequently reported cause of transfusion-related fatalities.  BT10 ensures that bacteria growth due to elevated temperatures has not compromised blood during storage, transportation and distribution     

Increase patient safety by confirming blood product is kept within the required conditions.  If unsafe temperature conditions occur the BT10 will give you an assurance to know that you’ve captured those issues prior to introducing unsafe blood to a patient.

Mainlining temperature control during storage and shipment is of extreme importance in order to uphold high standards of regulatory compliance.  There are many variables that will negatively affect the safety of your blood supply.  Blood Temp 10 will provide auditable proof that each individual blood bag has been maintained according to relevant regulations.

We invite you to learn more – leave us your contact information and we will schedule a time for you to come visit the booth for a live demonstration.

Temperature-Sensitive Labels for Containers of RBCs

I found an interesting article that compares three types of temperature sensitive label and a digital thermometer for the measurement blood bag temperatures and used for blood safety management – it’s a really useful item and well worth a read.

“Temperature-sensitive labels are adhesive tags that display color changes at preset temperatures. There have been no studies of the suitability of this technology for measuring the temperature of blood components during transportation and storage. We used a digital thermometer to measure temperature in different locations inside containers of RBCs as they were allowed to warm to ambient temperatures following removal from refrigeration. We compared these temperature readings with those of 3 temperature-sensitive labels. These labels are marketed to alert transfusion services if the temperature of blood bags exceeds 10B0C, which is the maximum permissible by Food and Drug Administration and American Association of Blood Banks requirements for transporting RBCs. The contents of refrigerated RBC units changed from one homogeneous temperature to a range of temperatures when containers were allowed to warm (undisturbed) to ambient temperatures. Color changes of all 3 temperature-sensitive labels correlated more with core compared with surface temperatures of RBC units. These devices add an additional dimension of safety to the conventional 30-minute rule, which limits storage of blood components at ambient temperature to 30 minutes.“

Read the full article here –  Temperature-Sensitive Labels for Containers of RBCs

Cold Chain Vaccines and Their Transportation

Cold chain is basically a mechanism, which is used to transport medicines, vaccines and even foods in a controlled temperature. Cold chain temperature indicator is used to make sure that medicines are always inside the designated temperature.

Why cold chain is important?

Cold chain is very important while delivering pharmaceuticals for several reasons. Medicines might get dissolved due to the exposure to extreme temperature. Use of cold chain gives an assurance or confidence in potent products. Cold chain temperature indicator suggests that all the pharmaceuticals are needed to be kept in between 2 degree Celsius to 8 degree Celsius. This is sometime referred as 2 to 8 cold chain temperature. Pharmaceuticals getting exposed to more than 8 degree Celsius will get damaged and the user might have to end up disposing those medicines.

Breach of temperature regulations

The refrigerator carrying drugs is a very important issue as well. During the breaks, drivers turn off the refrigerator of the truck in order to save fuel. During this time the medicines remain outside the designated temperature. So, when the medicines reach customers they might not get to know that the medicines were not inside the right temperature for several hours. In order to get rid of this cold chain monitoring problem and to stop the breach of cold chain regulations, Timestrip has introduced TimestripPlus. This device can detect, for how long the medicines were out of the designated temperature. The device has temperature monitoring labels, temperature sensitive labels and temperature indicators which are maintained by the movement of a liquid.

Cold chain vaccines

Cold chain is also used to deliver vaccines. There are lots of different vaccines like MMR, Hib, influenza, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B etc. that lots of hospitals needs on a regular basis. Cold chain plays a very important role while delivering those vaccines. Cold chain vaccines are most reliable vaccines having their original quality intact.

Vaccines should be kept in their original packaging. It is important to check the fridge temperature daily. Vaccines should not be kept in room temperature under any circumstances. And any opened vaccine needs to be disposed safely.