Rapid Conditioning Of Crēdo Promed™ Tic’s

• By: STRAIGHT, Suzanna ()
• Co-author(s): Petra Straight (National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre, Eaton, Australia)
  Suzanna Calder (National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre, Eaton, Australia)
  
• Abstract:

  Background information:
  During AUSMAT deployments vaccine administration can be required prior to departure, sometimes with very short notice. To enable transport of vaccines to particpants Crēdo ProMed™ thermally protected medical transporters are used. Due to the sudden nature of deployments and staff movements it is not always possible to condition ice bricks on the bench as per manufacturers instructions prior to vaccine transport and so an accelerated process is required.
  Purpose:
  The aim of the study was to determine a method to rapidly condition TIC’s (which contain a phase change material). It was proposed that soaking the ice bricks in tap water or running them under cold tap water would accelerate the condition process.
  Method:
  Six different condition methods were selected to trial:
  1) Soaking in a sink of cold tap water for 1 minute
  2) Soaking in a sink of cold tap water for 2 minute
  3) Soaking in a sink of cold tap water for 3 minute
  4) Running the TIC under cold tap water for 1 minute
  5) Running the TIC under cold tap water for 2 minute
  6) Running the TIC under cold tap water for 3 minute.
  When soaking the TIC’s the water was changed between each set of TIC bricks. The sink was filled with 20L of water and the TIC’s were placed so that they were not touching each other in the sink.
  When running the TIC’s under cold tap water the TIC’s were placed flat in a sink without overlap and the water was moved continually over the TIC’s.
  Once the allocated time was completed they were removed from the sink, dried and then placed into the Crēdo ProMed™ as per manufacturers instructions.
  A data logger was placed in each Crēdo ProMed™ with the sensor in a box and then packed as per normal. The data loggers were set up to record the temperature every 5 minutes and the Crēdo ProMed™’s were then placed in a temperature controlled room (room temperature) for 48 hours. After 48 hours the data loggers were removed and the information analysed. The process was repeated a second time to check the findings.
  Due to the availability of Crēdo ProMed™’s all 6 methods were trialled simultaneously, rather than sequentially using Crēdo ProMed™ Series 4 8L transporters.
  Results:
  All methods of conditioning the TIC’s kept the temperature inside the Crēdo ProMed™ below 8oC for 48 hours however they produced different times to lower the initial temperature in the Crēdo ProMed™ before adding the vaccines. For soaking it took 30 minutes, 8 minutes and 10 minutes for 1, 2 and 3 minutes respectively and for running water this was 75 minutes, 5 minutes and 10 minutes respectively to reach between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.
  Conclusion:
  When required with short notice Credo ProMed TICTM coolants can be rapidly conditioned for transporting vaccines by either soaking them in a sink of cold tap or running them under cold tap water for at least 2 minutes.