19 January 2021 - - UK-based digital asset tracking and monitoring provider Everyware Ltd and enterprise-grade distributed ledger provider Hedera Hashgraph are working with an initial group of National Health Service facilities to monitor the cold storage equipment being used to store the COVID-19 and other vaccines, the companies said.

The initial facilities in the South Warwickshire region adopting the technology include the Stratford Upon Avon and Warwick hospitals, with a wider rollout planned as vaccine distribution progresses.

The various COVID-19 vaccines, including the one developed by Pfizer and now approved for use in the UK, require exact degrees of cold storage at all times in order to maintain their efficacy.

While centralized distribution centers and transportation units can store the vaccine at the recommended -70°C±10°C for up to 10 days unopened, they must also be stored at hospitals and other administering centers for five days at refrigerated 2-8°C conditions.

Everyware provides asset tracking and monitoring software that can be configured to monitor a number of variables, including temperature, on a 24/7 basis, from anywhere.

By leveraging Everyware's asset monitoring solution at the 'last mile', hospitals and healthcare facilities can ensure that vaccines are being maintained at the proper temperature throughout the entire time in their custody, before they are administered to patients.

In addition, Everyware enables healthcare facilities to share information with other parts of the vaccine delivery chain including pharmaceutical providers, centralized storage facilities, and transportation companies, to respond and adjust to any issues as they arise.

Everyware's offering already provides this service for a number of other healthcare and pharmaceutical assets, including chemotherapy and other drugs, and blood and plasma, all of which have their own unique storage requirements.

Hedera is a decentralized public platform on which developers can build secure, fair, fast, trusted applications.

The platform is governed by a council of the world's leading organizations including Avery Dennison, Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, Dentons, DLA Piper, FIS (WorldPay), Google, IBM, LG Electronics, Magalu, Nomura, Swirlds, Tata Communications, University College London, Wipro, and Zain Group.