Posted on: 1/04/22
CUSTOMER background
The Christie has pioneered cancer research breakthroughs for over 100 years and is the largest cancer centre in Europe. In 2010, the Christie installed a Contronics temperature monitoring system that helps safeguard critical cancer care drugs within two main pharmacy stores and dispensary and remote ward locations.
Why a system was required
As a cancer centre, The Christie is required to comply with UKAS and MHRA guidelines. Working with cancer medication, it’s imperative that all patient treatments are stored in optimum conditions, or the stability and effectiveness of treatments could be compromised.
In addition to UKAS and MHRA compliance, The Christie must also demonstrate full compliance to the sponsors of its clinical trials, who reserve the right to audit The Christie at any time.
Why Contronics?
With the need to monitor fridges and freezers between -80 and -20, The Christie was looking for a robust, yet easy-to-use system that would ensure compliance and that samples were stored safely, at the correct temperature.
Susan Seifi, Lead Technician at The Christie, is responsible for setting up and auditing technical systems and processes to facilitate and streamline the assessment, pharmacy set-up and ongoing management of all types of clinical trials within the Trust.
Susan said: “Our Contronics system is intuitive and user-friendly. Dashboards display visual and audible alerts in multiple locations, allowing staff to instantly recognise fluctuations in temperature and pre-empt an alert before the alarm sounds. During out of hours, Contronics alarms are routed to an alarm monitor installed in our security office where bespoke alarm messages are displayed during temperature fluctuations. Our security department can then quickly make contact with the senior lead on duty to investigate the issue.”
As a requirement, The Christie must record temperature data for all clinical trials every 60 seconds. However, the Contronics system takes measurements every 15 seconds, logging the worst reading every 60 seconds. This enables The Christie to provide stable and trusted data to drug pharmaceutical quality teams easily.
Results
Not only does our Contronics system provide accurate and robust temperature monitoring and logging, but its audio-visual alarm messages and pictures of equipment also make it easy for new members of the team to understand the monitoring and follow our SOPs.
With a 24/7 system, data is displayed in real-time and there is no delay in alarm notifications. This allows us to view any sensor’s minimum, maximum and mean average temperature values at any given time. In addition to this, historical data is easily available and can be analysed for trending and auditing purposes, enabling Susan and her team to quickly spot alarm and data patterns and focus on remedying the cause of the issue.
Ongoing Support
When we spoke to Susan, she said:
“I have been happy with Contronics’ service and the system, and their support team is quick to respond to any requests. Contronics engineers carry out recalibration and temperature sensor validation for us annually onsite. The engineers are familiar with the site and work well with our staff, ensuring a hassle-free process.”
Talk to Us Today
As providers of world-leading monitoring systems and calibration and temperature mapping services, we have worked with countless organisations to ensure that their labs and cleanrooms meet regulatory standards.
For more information, please contact us today.
