Monash IVF Group

Tara Ross, the laboratory manager for Monash IVF’s Queensland laboratory, explains the issues the lab was having with its monitoring: ‘Before using the ECEFast solution’ says Tara, ‘our monitoring was not as robust as we needed, and was very time-consuming. On the tanks, we used stand-alone probes detecting LN2 level, which were large, and highly sensitive to being in exactly the right position to get an accurate reading. They were positioned in the lid of the tank, so removing the lid generated a false alert. There was a cable from the tank lid to a powered control box on the bench – which made moving the tanks (which we had to do to fill them and for cleaning) a cumbersome exercise. With no automation, our start of day quality control process involved manually checking the temperature of every piece of equipment and if something had gone out of spec during the night, we would only know the next morning.’

‘With the new system from ECEFast, monitoring temperatures and managing the laboratory is so much more efficient’, says Tara. ‘We now monitor and record temperatures 24/7, so we know what’s happened during the night just by logging into the portal. We don’t have to go through the manual checking process every morning. It’s all there on a screen waiting for us. We have cut down the time it takes to do our start of day process and we get the lab open faster every day.’

‘If there is a temperature issue, we get an equipment specific alert so that we can address it straight away. If it happens out of hours, the alert goes to whoever is on call’, she explains. ‘They can log on remotely see exactly which tank or incubator is the source of the alert and make an informed decision. For example, if it’s an incubator that has nothing in it, we know we can leave it until the morning, but if it’s one with an embryo, we take swift action.’  

‘Our home screen shows how many bars of power the batteries have, so that staff can replace batteries before they fail, and we never get caught out with a sensor not able to function.’  

The new system helps Monash IVF to reassure patients that their precious materials will be safe during transit: ‘We had a patient recently’, remembers Tara, ‘who was particularly anxious about transit. We were able to show her the temperature of the materials during the entire journey, which really helped to put her at ease.’ 

Moving the tanks is now straightforward, with no cables to navigate. Not only does this make filling and cleaning easier, but it was a game-changer when the lab had to move locations. Tara explains: ‘We moved to a new lab 15 minutes away – so we set up based stations in the new location before the move and left the base stations in the old location. As we moved the tanks, they continued to transmit data wirelessly to the old base station until they were out of range, then as soon as they were within 20 metres of the new base station, they automatically started transmitting to that one. It meant we only had a ‘dark window’ of 15 minutes during the entire move.