Monitoring temperature and humidity in ambulance service rapid-response vehicles and paramedics medication bags: A pilot study

Background: In the pre-hospital context, paramedics carry medications in multi-compartment medication bags. However, these medications are occasionally subjected to temperature and humidity variations as they are being carried around by paramedics during their operational duties. 1,2 To develop a protocol to investigate medications’ stability inside these bags, a pilot study was needed to build a basic understanding of the temperature and humidity variations within both vehicles and bags and to guide the development of such a protocol. Methods: Data loggers, pre-programmed to record temperature and humidity every 5 minutes, were inserted inside two operational rapid-response vehicles and their respective medication bags for two full days (16-17/09/2020) when the outside temperature ranged from 30 to 40°C and the humidity ranged from 39% to 74%. 3 Following this, 4 data loggers were installed for one month inside 4 different medication bags (28/09/2020-28/10/2020) in similar operational vehicles when the outside temperature ranged from 23 to 42°C and the humidity ranged from 18% to 80%. 3 Logging data were extracted using special software (ElitechLog V6.0.3). Results: For the two-day study, temperature and humidity recordings were obtained (Figure 1). The mean (SD) temperature differences between both medication bags and their respective vehicles were -1.04°C (3.01) and 0.09°C (2.64)