About ParagonV: Validation Consultants
Withnell Sensors works with many expert partners crossing various industries. This year we would like to share a bit more about these crucial companies in our brand new ‘Guest Blog’ series. We’re thrilled to start with an insight from ParagonV into the possibilities of remote temperature mapping, very suitable for the current climate. Please let us know what topics you would like to see covered in this series and also if you would like to recommend a suitable company to be featured.
ParagonV is a group of individual validation consultants with experience across a wide range of disciplines. The founders are all focused on delivering the best quality validation engineering workmanship and the company was established based on the realisation that working together with a shared experience and a shared aim makes for a good business.
One very common requirement across life science industries is "mapping" of storage areas with specific environmental conditions e.g. Temperature, relative humidity (RH) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This mapping is fundamental in the qualification of these storage areas and the continued verification that the required conditions are met throughout its use.
Director Laura Butchart Explains More About What They Do
Laura Butchart is a director at the company, and here explains more about what she and the company offers:
“I have been "temperature" mapping fridges, freezers, cold rooms, incubators, and warehouses since 2008 and only recently has the quality of the test equipment and their reporting functions taken a leap, in my opinion. The accuracy and reliability required for the equipment comes with a price tag, as well as the ability to apply temperature ranges from -196°C to +350°C. Withnell Sensors Ltd have always been able to provide the required equipment, either through purchase or rental with an abundance of technical expertise.”
“This year has added complications to the usual travel and site visits possible to do commissioning and qualification work. We used the Sense Anywhere data logging system for one of our clients in early 2020. Sense Anywhere is a cloud-based platform with a cost based on number of loggers used and the number of reports generated. ParagonV provided the qualification protocol, Withnell Sensors Ltd delivered the loggers to the client site, the client installed the loggers, and ParagonV used the cloud service to log on and view the data and generate the reports. Even though it was a straightforward job this is a good example on how qualification work (e.g., Applied to temperature mapping) can be completed remotely using the expertise and equipment of various parties. The reports generated by the Sense Anywhere contained all the pertinent and applicable data that allowed our client to receive this report and attach to a protocol without further data transcription.”
“One improvement could only have been made in the initial training/ instruction to the technician installing the loggers for the first time - for this we could have used Augmented Reality (AR), for example, the Microsoft HoloLens to allow ParagonV to provide guidance in real time - a nice replacement to delayed responses to photos. Photos, and sometimes video, are used to share information- however these are not always the best way to describe or contextualise complex locations when there are differences in language, technical ability and semantics; although, they are of course an improvement on written word.”
“Remote qualification will have been performed in many ways during the Covid-19 pandemic, and with the changes required to avert the global environmental crisis working remotely where at all possible, I hope, will become the norm. The technology becoming mainstream now, pushed along by pandemic lockdowns, will take a hold and provide the facility to work smart and efficiently.”
“With the vaccine race chugging along one thing that is a given is the storage facilities for these vaccines up and down the country. Whether this is at -70°C or within the normal refrigeration range 2-8°C, temperature mapping will be a task undertaken en masse. There will be differences in: budget, requirement, technical expertise, test equipment, qualification protocols available and quality of the storage equipment. It will also take teams of people to work together to deliver- just like the end result ParagonV and Withnell Sensors Ltd achieved earlier this year. ParagonV are growing to meet the demand for work and are looking forward to working with Withnell Sensors Ltd to deliver upcoming projects.”
A Valued Withnell Sensors Partner
Withnell Sensors has experienced first-hand the meticulous detail and level of expertise that the team at ParagonV deliver on projects. It is a company that we pride ourselves in working alongside and relish the prospect of further projects that we will work in unison on in the future. You can view the ParagonV website here.
