B Medical Systems’ IT technician customer support, Pit Glodt, recently travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During the trip, he visited 17 health centers to assess the performance of the critical cold chain network enabling the safe storage of thousands of childhood vaccines. The journey was highly valuable, as he was able to implement immediate solutions. He came back with the head full of ideas to provide cold chain solutions that are reliable and perfectly fit for their use on the ground.

DRC counts a total of 1,945 B Medical Systems’ cold chain equipment. Designed for the safe storage of vaccines and blood, the TCW 40 SDD refrigerators use the only energy source that never runs dry in the region: they work straight from solar panels, with no batteries and regulators.

Each unit comes with an integrated cold chain data logger. The loggers are small stationary units that monitor the temperature and performance of the vaccine refrigerators and freezers. They act as a guardian angel that makes sure the cold chain is respected under any circumstances, and that every vaccine remains both safe and usable until administration to the patients. Not only do they allow healthcare providers to access real-time data of their equipment over the web, they also track the vaccines providing their GPS positioning on Google Maps.

To improve the effectiveness and reliability of the data loggers in DRC, Pit visited the health facilities in-person in the south of the capital Kinshasa, and in the southern region of Lubumbashi. The poor road conditions made the journey quite adventurous, with health centers being only accessible by motorbikes or even by foot due to their location on top of a hill or in the national park of Kundelungu. Encountering the situation and interacting with healthcare professionals helped him better understand the evolving medical needs and the challenges faced on the ground, such as the low mobile Internet coverage in rural areas.

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For over 35 years, B Medical Systems has been innovating and creating vaccine cold chain transport and storage solutions with the aim of supporting the success of large-scale immunization programs in emerging markets, and saving lives.