Automated environmental monitoring solutions in large and complex medical research institutions are more critical than ever to the protection of our human health and medical storage.
However, the technologies used in some of these real-time environmental monitoring systems are not fool proof and can be subject to vast and varied inefficiencies and contaminants. The consequences of an ineffective environmental monitoring system can be serious financial and human health impacts.
The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, one of Australia’s premier medical research institutes, enlisted Autima to help them continuously monitor their sensitive assets, ensuring they remain viable and within regulatory requirements. Autima’s automated environmental monitoring solutions eliminate the risk of sensitive assets having to be discarded and the cost implications that come with it.
About Autima
Autima is a leading provider of automated cold chain and environmental monitoring solutions. More than just a system, Autima provides experience, direction, and hands-on support to ensure total visibility of your monitored environment.
The company’s portfolio of solutions, which includes remote temperature monitoring devices and an industry-leading cloud-based interface is used in over 74 countries and can monitor various factors including Temperature, Humidity, and Differential Pressure, with has applications in industries such as Healthcare, Life sciences, University and Research Institutes, and Warehousing and Distribution.
About Garvan Institute of Medical Research
The Garvan Institute of Medical Research was founded in 1981, with the purpose of funding, aiding, and promoting scientific and medical research. The institute raised $110,000 in its first year, which has since increased to close to $20 million annually.
Today, Garvan is known globally for breaking down barriers between established scientific disciplines to develop cures for sickness.
Affiliated with St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney and UNSW Sydney, the Institute’s researchers have achieved significant technological discoveries in the areas of genome, epigenome, protein, and cell analysis, including causes and treatments for diseases like osteoporosis, and cancer, immunological insufficiency, and autoimmunity.
The Garvan Institute remains at the forefront of developments in medical research, contributing to the more rapid and economical sequencing of the human genome and the promise of personalised therapy – both of which are expected to revolutionise medicine over the next 50 years.
Why Garvan Partnered with Autima
Both Garvan and Autima share the same vision – to make a significant global impact through cutting-edge technology that enables organisations (and their partners) to seamlessly continue lifesaving work.
Garvan leads the field in medical genomics, epigenetics, and cellular genomics; cancer; diseases of immunity and inflammation; and diseases of aging affecting bone, brain, and metabolism. The company is focused on addressing the unmet needs of those living with disease – where better understanding, new treatments and more effective diagnosis can have the biggest impact.
With over a decade of experience in the temperature control monitoring solutions business, Autima is proud of the positive impact its technology has on people, communities, and entire economies through its applications in the global health, agriculture, and food retail industries.
How Garvan Has Benefitted from Using Autima’s Automated Environmental Monitoring Solutions
Garvan and Autima’s relationship is approaching its second year. Garvan discovered Autima’s services online during preliminary inquiries around wireless systems that could support their fleet of four emergency freezers in a way that was reliable and measurable. Garvan was looking for a provider that offered solutions that did not require physical network infrastructures such as Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or Dedicated Servers.
After viewing a demonstration of Autima’s solution, they were confident that Autima provided the most advanced, modern, and dependable Electronic Monitoring Device in the market.
There are 66 ultra-low temperature freezers that are stationary within the Garvan facility. In addition to this, the Institute has a fleet of four emergency mobile -80◦C freezers and two emergency –20◦C freezers that move around the Garvan facilities when needed, and may be required at any given location, at any given time.
“Unfortunately, prior to partnering with Autima, we experienced an event in which one of the emergency freezers was defrosting due to not being properly plugged in. The freezer needed to be manually checked to gauge if the temperature had dropped to what is known as ‘emergency mode’, and the assets of that freezer were lost. This event is what led us to the realisation that a wireless monitoring solution was essential and was the only option we needed to invest in,” says Rebecca Brown, Scientific Services Manager at Garvan.
“We considered several Wi-Fi-based monitoring solutions. However, Garvan is spread across two buildings and multiple floors, with numerous dead zones. Since Autima does not utilise Wi-Fi, dead zones are no longer an issue, and our emergency freezers are now constantly monitored without having to be rewired or hooked in,” continues Rebecca.
Where To Next?
“We currently have vessels in a partner precinct structure that possess a cryogenic facility. Their building infrastructure is different from ours at Garvan, making it difficult to monitor our equipment through them. It is considerably simpler to perform wirelessly and partnering with Autima to connect these vessels next year is something we are aiming for.”
Meanwhile, Autima’s Electronic Monitoring system ensures the ongoing quality and integrity of
medical research institutes’ products and specimens by continuously monitoring critical assets, such as Fridges, Freezers, Incubators and Clean Rooms.
