AmericanPharma Technologies monitors pharmaceutical and healthcare environments to make sure they’re being operated in a safe and regulatory-compliant manner. Customers purchase its PharmaWatch offering as an IoT based System-as-a-Service software solution, which provides the sensor and communication hardware, data collection and storage. Eseye’s market-leading connectivity solution enables the application to operate reliably over cellular networks, guaranteeing a high level of customer service, while unlocking the global data connectivity capabilities it needs to expand beyond the US.
PharmaWatch monitors parameters such as temperature, humidity, CO2 concentration and differential pressure for materials such as human tissue, blood storage, organs, corneas and embryos for IVF. It notifies customers if conditions move outside defined limits, with alerting and reporting via an app. It also offers in-depth compliance reporting and business intelligence to prepare customers for regulatory audits, with guidance on how to improve operations.
Wi-Fi connectivity becomes unworkable
Initially, the PharmaWatch environmental monitoring devices were connected to the cloud with Wi-Fi and relied on the customer’s own networks to send data. Customers’ networks were often much less robust than expected and organisations in the healthcare industry were continuously ratcheting up the security of their networks – with each change there was a risk the PharmaWatch devices would no longer connect.
“We were spending increasing amounts of time fixing connection issues,” says Casey Harris, AmericanPharma Technologies’ chief technology officer. “If connectivity was interrupted, we would collect the data and send it when communication was restored, but that was not ideal.”
To address the problem, AmericanPharma developed an early first-generation cellular system which fixed many of the issues it had experienced with Wi-Fi, but unfortunately this introduced other problems. A lack of roaming capability meant coverage was limited to the US, and the system could only operate within the Verizon network. It was also prone to long delays and outages.
“These issues were really putting a strain on our resources and limiting our success,” continues Harris. “As our business grew, we need a scalable and less support-intensive solution with near 100% uptime that worked worldwide.”
Following extensive research, AmericanPharma chose Eseye as its IoT connectivity partner, having found it the most responsive company among those it contacted. “We had many intrusive questions, and put out many hurdles,” admits Harris. “Eseye was able to easily pass each one in our quest for the ideal partner. It even put us in touch with one of its current customers so we could ask them directly about their experience with Eseye as a partner.
Unlocking global expansion
Installing Eseye’s AnyNet+ SIMs into its devices enabled AmericanPharma to eliminate the barriers that had impeded reliable cellular connectivity, and cellular roaming.
Through its AnyNet Federation mobile network alliance, Eseye has agreements with every major mobile network operator in the world, giving it – and PharmaWatch – access to a choice of more than 700 cellular networks in over 190 countries. Each multi-IMSI SIM can be loaded with multiple network user profiles, allowing the team complete flexibility in the carriers it uses, based on geography, or to take advantage of better data rates, for example. New networks and operators can be easily introduced with a click as new markets are conquered.
Embedding Eseye’s new AnyNet SMARTconnect intelligent connectivity software ensures the devices operate every time, and consistently, wherever they’re deployed. The software monitors a variety of constraints on the device and selects and optimises the right networks and protocols to suit device performance requirements. If connectivity is interrupted, SMARTconnect keeps data flowing by switching the SIM seamlessly to another network.
The enabling infrastructure behind the AnyNet eSIM and SMARTconnect software is Eseye’s Infinity IoT Platform, which provides centralised, detailed oversight of connection and device status across the entire estate. AmericanPharma can manage and optimise connectivity remotely for its PharmaWatch solution, on a device-by-device basis with the platform and make changes and updates to their units over-the-air.
Building connectivity in from the start
AmericanPharma took advantage of Eseye’s expert IoT Advisory Services in the early days of the partnership – including device design, device validation and certification assistance – to optimise connectivity and resilience in its existing units, as well as the new ones it was building.
Its monitoring devices use an embedded system, comprising a base board and a communications daughter board. To upgrade its legacy units, the team needed to be able to create a new daughter board with the latest LTE Cat M1 low power wide area cellular technology. “This was a new engineering approach for Eseye, but it was game,” remembers Harris. “We were able to licence the software from Eseye for the LTE module, taking advantage of Eseye’s deep experience while still using much of our existing system.”
AnyNet SMARTconnect provides real business value
Having signed the contract with Eseye in late 2021, AmericanPharma shipped its first PharmaWatch production units in the first week of August 2022. By the end of 2022, more than 1,200 devices were active on customer sites. “This was an exceptionally fast turnaround, in large part because of how good Eseye has been to work with,” points out Harris.
In 2022, during the initial phase of commercial deployment, the network operator Rogers Communications suffered a massive network outage that affected Canadian customers. While wireless connectivity remained active, the end-to-end data path was down meaning most IoT devices were offline for 19 hours. This was not the case for PharmaWatch, however: all devices with Eseye’s AnyNet SMARTconnect and AnyNet+ eSIM embedded recovered connectivity within 30 to 90 minutes, by redirecting traffic over the TELUS network. This meant minimum service downtime and disruption for customers.
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