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GPS locator, intelligently sealed closure, temperature control and many other advantages, so that medical samples are maintained in the best conditions.

Between 7% and 11% of medical samples at laboratories and hospitals for medical analysis arrive in poor condition. This could lead to medical errors in the research process with reprecussions on our health and on scientific advances. The main cause of this is transportation and transfer of samples from test centres to their place of analysis and include changes of temperature or light, knocks, container spills, among other things.   

For this reason, the start-up Greenland Tech, specialising in refrigerated transport solutions, has launched an intelligent device, “Nuuk”. This wearable is the first refrigerator specialising in the management and traceability of any biological element or sample.

The device has been manufactured in Spain, with 100% recyclable materials and possesses EU certification UN 3373/ADR (European Agreement for the Transportation of Hazardous Goods by Road). 

It has applications in different sectors (pharmaceutical, medical and logistics) and has been specially designed to transport vaccines, biological samples (or sensitive samples such as anti-doping controls), medical and legal samples. The technical features of the device also offer a version adapted to the transportation of gourmet foods such as truffles, caviar and other high value gastronomic products.

What does the first intelligent refrigerator offer?

The refrigerator is a container that can maintain passive cooling for up to 10 hours and achieves a temperature of between 10 and 23 degrees. Nuuk has a temperature control technology that ensures the maintenance of elements transported and informs of any disruption to the cold chain, if this occurs.

Moreover, it also has opening controls and a GPS locator (to find out where the refrigerator is in real time from the research centres). It also has a gyroscopic sensor which will raise an alert if an impact is detected, with acoustic signals and a frontal information screen and cloud platform (for devices like mobiles or computers) on which the situation can be checked at any time.

“At any time, they allow you to quickly and easily find out if the samples have arrived in the correct conditions” Gabriel Bestard the CEO at Groenlandia Tech

To guarantee safety during transportation, Nuuk has an app which controls opening as well as NFC&RFiD cards.

“You can follow the device through a control panel that gives information on the number of times and the people that have opened the refrigerator, graphs of the monitored temperature and maps of the route taken by the device”, Christian Rodríguez, president at Mutter.

The ‘cloud’ platform at Greenland Tech is integrated with the platforms of the pre-analytic and logistics market leader through its API.

He also comments on the first intelligent refrigerator, which is also manufactured in Spain:

“Nuuk will enable the resolution of shortfalls in the traceability and control experienced to date in the refrigerated transportation of elements like biological samples or vaccines (…) In this way, the Greenland technology offers an extra layer of security for organisations and companies that want to have strict controls over the samples that they transport”.

The solution also carries out an analysis of historical data on routes and refrigerators that allow for optimal transportation and the development of improved practices, as well as giving access to real time data.

International distribution

The project has now specified its agreements at an international level and these will enable them to enter new markets in the near future. The forecast medium-term objectives of the Spanish start-up seek to turn their technology into the standard for the transportation of cold samples throughout the world. Apart from the above, they are also in negotiation with public administrations and some of the major hospitals, who have already started requesting traceability from their providers for the management of elements and samples in order to guarantee their safety.

How does it achieve these results?

On a basis of trial and error. At Greenland Tech, they are trialling the refrigerator with the main users, the medical centre and the laboratories. In this way, they have achieved substantial results that continue to improve the product, which is still in development. An example is the pilot project consisting of 2,500 samples that they carried out with Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona.

 

“Over three days, they used our refrigerators and platforms to send all the biomedical samples that they exchange with the 3 health centres in the health area that the hospital is part of. In short, 6 Nuuk refrigerators were used to transport 2,500 samples. It has been a clear success from which, above all, speed and security were highlighted”, Gabriel Bestard