CDC Issues New Recommendation for Data Loggers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal organization dedicated to

protecting America from health, safety and security threats, has come out with a new

recommendation for data loggers.

The CDC has recommended that temperature data logger or temperature recorder systems

should be capable of enabling a manual reset of statistics right at the logger for refrigerated

and/or frozen vaccines. This will allow users to act quickly to control and reset statistics

immediately when a problem is detected, permitting better record-keeping of these controlled

environments and potentially higher protection of the vaccines.

Among the CDC recommendations for vaccine storage is an advisory against use of stand-

alone refrigerators and stand-alone freezers suitable for vaccine storage. The CDC also

recommends elimination of dormitory or bar-style refrigerators as storage units, which present

the highest risk of vaccine-damaging temperature changes, for any vaccine storage, even

temporary.

One potential alternative the CDC suggests is to use only the refrigerated compartment of a

combination household refrigerator/freezer to store vaccines requiring refrigeration.

The CDC recommendations stem from a study conducted by the National Institute of Standards

& Technology (NIST), which looked at several aspects of vaccine storage, including data

loggers, data logging software and temperature monitoring systems. The study found that the

dormitory or bar-style refrigerators allowed too great a variation in temperature.

NIST also discovered that digital data loggers with detachable probes provided ease of

monitoring and the ability to download collected data without disturbing the probe. The study

concluded that measurement of the actual vial temperatures was imperative to effective vaccine

management, as the air temperatures did not always accurately reflect what was going on in the

vaccine bottle temperatures.

As a result of that study, several companies have implemented changes that enable users to

control and reset statistics manually, as recommended by the CDC. The feature allows the user

to manually set the statistics back on the device to zero instead of having to use software for

this function. This will enable users to reset the device without losing prior data.

The new features will promote compliance with the CDC instructions specific to storage and

handling of vaccines, encouraging greater control and more accurate medical observations,

particularly in remote locations. In case temperature anomalies are discovered, the new feature

will alert the personnel to temperature changes and allow them to take immediate action, thus

ensuring that personnel can quickly make sure that the vaccines are not being destroyed by

temperature changes.

To learn more visit http://www.madgetech.com