Wire-free monitoring system can cope with up to 128 different sensors for temperature, oxygen concentration, relative humidity, CO2, pressure, or light levels is recognised by regional journal
Monitherm has won the East Anglia Journal's coveted Innovation in Technology Award 2002 for its MLS2000 wire-free monitoring system.
Although only a couple of years old, Monitherm has already made great strides in both the commercial and NHS Trust markets, and the East Anglian Journal's award is in recognition of it being the only company currently to offer a wire-free monitoring system with the range, quantity of sensors, and number of parameters that can be monitored on a single system.
These are all requirements desirable in a modern laboratory environment.
A MLS2000 system has recently been delivered to Harefield Hospital in Middlesex, one of the country's top transplant centres, where it was installed in the Transplant Immunology and Tissue Typing departments in the hospital's pioneering Heart Science Centre.
Monitherm' s managing director Jim Eleming explained: "Recent changes in legislation governing the licence-free use of frequencies and transmitter strengths, previously reserved for military use, have allowed us to develop our new system.
It is based on a number of remote sensors reporting back to a central, base-station PC. These have a normal range of up to 250m from the receiver and a maximum of 128 sensors can be incorporated within a single system." The installation at Harefield was for an initial 17 sensor probes, but the intention is for it to be expanded over time and in a number of different stages, possibly to include other departments within the hospital.
The system went into an existing, working department and was therefore ideal for laboratory conditions, where sensitive on-going experiments were being carried out.
The wireless system meant that disruption was kept to a minimum at all times, and allowed the laboratory to function as normal.
The system installed at Harefield was specifically designed to check temperature and oxygen concentration within tissue culture incubators and specimen storage freezers, where it is absolutely vital to be able to measure and record this information, regularly and accurately, and have the ability to raise the alarm if something should go wrong.
However, measurement of relative humidity, carbon dioxide, light levels, and pressure is also possible on the same system. Neil Leaver is the principal clinical scientist in Transplant Immunology Research at Harefield, and has been instrumental in acquiring the MLS2000 for his department.
The temperature monitoring had previously been done manually, which was time consuming and liable to human error, so the decision was made some time ago to move to an automated system.
Monitherm is being actively considered for monitoring and alarm systems by a pioneering research group into HIV/AIDS vaccine, other NHS trusts and pharmaceutical testing companies.
The future is looking very optimistic for continued growth and further developments into exciting new areas are planned by the company.
Jim Fleming added: "Obviously we are delighted to have received this prestigious award, particularly since it is linked to innovation and our customers tell us that in the MI.S2000 we really do have a product that is not just innovative but can be tailored to meet their needs and requirements in an extremely cost-effective manner."
