In The News
How Temperature Monitoring is Advancing Cancer Care at Ellis Medicine
Monday, March 3, 2025
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – A study that took place in the Capital Region turned up groundbreaking findings. Experts said it’s changed the standard of care for cancer patients and it’s happening at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady.
Doctors said patients typically wait until they get symptoms or are feeling ill to check their temperature. But now cancer patients can continually monitor their temperature throughout their entire chemotherapy treatment with TempShield.
The Stay Well Program outfits patients with the device that’s taped to their chest. It alerts patients and their physicians when a patient’s temperature spikes. Dr. Tallat Mahmood is the medical director at Roswell Park Cancer/Ellis Medicine and she said it’s a game changer.
“What we had before was we’d tell patients, ‘Hey you gotta check your temperature. Yeah you gotta do it like three times a day’,” said Mahmood.
She said the device helps keep cancer patients out of the hospital with infections, and on track with their chemotherapy treatments. Sam Barend is the CEO of AION Biosystems.
“It’s about early identification of infections. It’s about identifying issues before they turn into life threatening situations and it is essentially like the check engine light in your car. It’s for someone who is very immune compromised or an oncology patient,” said Barend.
Schenectady was the first to utilize TempSheild to help healthcare workers take a proactive approach to caring for cancer patients.
“It wasn’t conducted before because there wasn’t a device that could measure temperature continuously,” said Mahmood.
She thought this program would be great for their patients because it saves lives.
“It’s really cool because it’s something new. It’s something that is cutting edge and to be able to offer it here in Schenectady, You know it feels great,” said Mahmood.
The findings were presented at a Schenectady city council meeting last week.
“The program is continuing, it’s moving forward. And we are actively exploring partnerships throughout the Capital Region through the help of the city of Schenectady and the mayor who is incredibly passionate and was the catalyst behind this program,” said Barend.
AION Biosystems expects to publish the findings out of Schenectady in Oncology journals come Spring. Mahmood said the patients feel good about the device.
“The overwhelming response is that they love it,” said Mahmood.
Read the full article here.
Ellis Medicine | Newsroom
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