Keeping vaccines safe with smart cold chain technology

Delivering the right vaccines to areas of the world that need them the most is crucial for global health. Unfortunately, vaccine fridges in rural clinics often fail due to power outages or lack of resources, which means that vaccines can become inactive, leading to unprotected children and wasted investment.

I have this challenge

the problem

Disease rates are low in the United States today. But if we let ourselves become vulnerable by not vaccinating, a case that could touch off an outbreak of some disease that is currently under control is just a plane ride away. This is why it's important to ensure that immunizations make it to their destinations around the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 56% of cold chain equipment in low and middle income countries is poorly functioning or non-functional. Improving tech that keeps these vaccines cold and alerts providers to any issues can save billions of lives, directly and indirectly.

ideas

ColdTrace is a system developed by Nithya Ramanathan, Martin Lukac and Ian Leong with support from the likes of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google and The World Bank, which aims to solve the problem.

A temperature sensor probe is placed inside a vaccine refrigerator, and connects to a nearby ColdTrace device, usually mounted on the wall. The device uploads temperature and grid power availability to a server, which sends SMS messages to key personnel like nurses, managers and maintenance technicians when the fridge starts to fail.

attributions

https://www.socialtech.org.uk/projects/coldtrace/

Emily Nelson

https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-nelson-bbaba7183/

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