Patch is early indicator of temperature rise after HSCT

A fever-monitoring patch was well tolerated in hospitalized patients undergoing stem cell transplant or intensive chemotherapy for leukemia, and alerted physicians to the presence of a fever much earlier than did standard temperature-taking procedures, according to findings from a study abstract that was published in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The patch can transmit data via Bluetooth to an iPad or smartphone, and it attempts to bring temperature recording in line with other vital signs. “It’s the only vital sign that’s not continuously monitored outside of the ICU,” said John Gannon, CEO of Blue Spark, which markets the TempTraq underarm patch used in the study.

The units are constructed with thin batteries that can be “printed” on to any surface. “Being disposable makes it a very usable work flow device,” said Mr. Gannon.

The researchers tested the TempTraq in 10 patients who had been admitted for stem cell transplant or high dose chemotherapy for leukemia.

In addition to wearing the patch, patients had their temperature measured in standard fashion every 4 hours. The researchers defined a temperature rise as a spike above 100.4° F. The device measured body temperature every 10 minutes (14,342 temperature measurements).

Standard of care measurement identified 23 temperature rise episodes, 21 of which were recorded by the TempTraq patch. The device caught temperature spikes much sooner than did standard of care measures – a median of 140.1 minutes earlier (range, 30-180 minutes).

All 10 patients continued to wear the patch throughout the hospital stay, with 9 of 10 reporting that the patch was comfortable and didn’t produce any skin irritation. Eight patients indicated interest in using the patch again, and 8 said they were completely satisfied with the patch.

The next step is to determine if the patch could be used successfully in an outpatient stem cell transplant setting.

The device could also be integrated directly with hospital central monitoring systems using Blue Spark’s TempTraq Connect, which is a HIPAA-compliant service supported by the Google Healthcare Cloud Platform, though this was not tested in the current study.

The TempTraq could be used to monitor patients for the onset of sepsis and allow faster interventions, according to Mr. Gannon. Also, patients who are susceptible to infections could be sent home with a TempTraq monitor, which would send signals to a central monitoring station.

A fever-monitoring patch was well tolerated in hospitalized patients undergoing stem cell transplant or intensive chemotherapy for leukemia, and alerted physicians to the presence of a fever much earlier than did standard temperature-taking procedures, according to findings from a study abstract that was published in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The patch can transmit data via Bluetooth to an iPad or smartphone, and it attempts to bring temperature recording in line with other vital signs. “It’s the only vital sign that’s not continuously monitored outside of the ICU,” said John Gannon, CEO of Blue Spark, which markets the TempTraq underarm patch used in the study.

The units are constructed with thin batteries that can be “printed” on to any surface. “Being disposable makes it a very usable work flow device,” said Mr. Gannon.

The researchers tested the TempTraq in 10 patients who had been admitted for stem cell transplant or high dose chemotherapy for leukemia.

In addition to wearing the patch, patients had their temperature measured in standard fashion every 4 hours. The researchers defined a temperature rise as a spike above 100.4° F. The device measured body temperature every 10 minutes (14,342 temperature measurements).

Standard of care measurement identified 23 temperature rise episodes, 21 of which were recorded by the TempTraq patch. The device caught temperature spikes much sooner than did standard of care measures – a median of 140.1 minutes earlier (range, 30-180 minutes).

All 10 patients continued to wear the patch throughout the hospital stay, with 9 of 10 reporting that the patch was comfortable and didn’t produce any skin irritation. Eight patients indicated interest in using the patch again, and 8 said they were completely satisfied with the patch.

The next step is to determine if the patch could be used successfully in an outpatient stem cell transplant setting.

The device could also be integrated directly with hospital central monitoring systems using Blue Spark’s TempTraq Connect, which is a HIPAA-compliant service supported by the Google Healthcare Cloud Platform, though this was not tested in the current study.

The TempTraq could be used to monitor patients for the onset of sepsis and allow faster interventions, according to Mr. Gannon. Also, patients who are susceptible to infections could be sent home with a TempTraq monitor, which would send signals to a central monitoring station.

A fever-monitoring patch was well tolerated in hospitalized patients undergoing stem cell transplant or intensive chemotherapy for leukemia, and alerted physicians to the presence of a fever much earlier than did standard temperature-taking procedures, according to findings from a study abstract that was published in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The patch can transmit data via Bluetooth to an iPad or smartphone, and it attempts to bring temperature recording in line with other vital signs. “It’s the only vital sign that’s not continuously monitored outside of the ICU,” said John Gannon, CEO of Blue Spark, which markets the TempTraq underarm patch used in the study.

The units are constructed with thin batteries that can be “printed” on to any surface. “Being disposable makes it a very usable work flow device,” said Mr. Gannon.

The researchers tested the TempTraq in 10 patients who had been admitted for stem cell transplant or high dose chemotherapy for leukemia.

In addition to wearing the patch, patients had their temperature measured in standard fashion every 4 hours. The researchers defined a temperature rise as a spike above 100.4° F. The device measured body temperature every 10 minutes (14,342 temperature measurements).

Standard of care measurement identified 23 temperature rise episodes, 21 of which were recorded by the TempTraq patch. The device caught temperature spikes much sooner than did standard of care measures – a median of 140.1 minutes earlier (range, 30-180 minutes).

All 10 patients continued to wear the patch throughout the hospital stay, with 9 of 10 reporting that the patch was comfortable and didn’t produce any skin irritation. Eight patients indicated interest in using the patch again, and 8 said they were completely satisfied with the patch.

The next step is to determine if the patch could be used successfully in an outpatient stem cell transplant setting.

The device could also be integrated directly with hospital central monitoring systems using Blue Spark’s TempTraq Connect, which is a HIPAA-compliant service supported by the Google Healthcare Cloud Platform, though this was not tested in the current study.

The TempTraq could be used to monitor patients for the onset of sepsis and allow faster interventions, according to Mr. Gannon. Also, patients who are susceptible to infections could be sent home with a TempTraq monitor, which would send signals to a central monitoring station.