How Beta 80’s PSIM improved cold chain monitoring in an Italian hospital
By: Carlo Paradiso, Senior Business Advisor – Emergency Management Division
E-mail: carlo.paradiso@beta80group.it
In healthcare environments, maintaining the cold chain is essential to protect pharmaceuticals, vaccines and biological materials while ensuring patient safety and regulatory compliance. Yet, monitoring critical assets across multiple facilities and controlled environments remains a complex task when systems operate in isolation and data collection relies on manual processes.
A major Italian healthcare organization faced this challenge. Pharmaceutical refrigerators, laboratories, cold rooms and temperature-controlled areas were monitored through fragmented technologies that provided limited visibility and no centralized oversight, making it difficult to promptly identify and manage anomalies. To improve operational control and reduce risk exposure, the hospital launched a digital transformation initiative focused on centralized monitoring and event management, leveraging Beta 80’s PSIM platform integrated with IoT sensing technologies.
The challenge: fragmented monitoring and limited visibility
Cold chain continuity depends on the ability to identify anomalies before they become critical events. Several issues limited operational effectiveness:
- No centralized view of monitored assets and environmental conditions.
- Difficulty correlating information coming from heterogeneous systems.
- Dependence on manual inspections to verify alarms and anomalies.
The organization therefore required a solution capable of providing continuous visibility, reliable data collection and rapid incident response. Before implementation, Beta 80 assessed the hospital’s operational processes, monitored environments and existing technologies. Based on this analysis, alarm thresholds, event severity levels and escalation procedures were configured according to the criticality of each environment, creating a scalable monitoring framework aligned with operational requirements.
The solution: IoT monitoring integrated into a PSIM platform
The implemented solution combines IoT sensors with Control 1st, Beta 80’s PSIM platform, creating a centralized environment for monitoring critical assets and environmental conditions. Temperature and humidity sensors continuously collect data from refrigerators, laboratories and controlled areas, making information immediately available through real-time dashboards and graphical floor plans. This allows operators to quickly identify the location and nature of anomalies, replacing fragmented monitoring approaches with a single operational view.
The platform also provides advanced event and alarm management capabilities. When predefined thresholds are exceeded, notifications can be automatically distributed through multiple channels, including email, SMS, voice calls and messaging applications. Configurable escalation workflows ensure that critical events are promptly addressed, improving response times and operational reliability.
The new monitoring model delivered measurable improvements:
- Real-time operational awareness. A unified view of assets and environmental conditions enables faster anomaly detection and greater visibility.
- Reduced risk exposure. Automated alarms and escalation workflows help prevent undetected temperature excursions and protect sensitive materials.
- Greater efficiency. Automated monitoring replaces manual inspections, allowing staff to focus on higher-value activities.
- Traceability and compliance support. Environmental data is recorded and exportable, simplifying audits, investigations and compliance activities.
Control 1st acts as a centralized layer that collects, correlates and contextualizes information from field devices, transforming isolated data into actionable operational intelligence.
