"Book of VVM"  December 2019 book signing

“Book of VVM” signing by Dr. Umit Kartaglu

The evolution of the VVM has been a long one, starting more than 40 years ago. This advancement has now been chronicled in The Book of VVM: Yesterday-today-and-tomorrow, by Dr. Umit Kartoglu, a former scientist for WHO.

On December 19, 2019, Temptime, now a part of Zebra Technologies – the only company in the world offering VVMs today – hosted a book signing for Dr. Kartoglu at their New Jersey headquarters. In addition to the author, the event brought together many of the people who have been involved in the development of VVM along the way. This included employees, past and present, and former board members and consultants as well as early innovators Dr. John Allegra, Ray Baughman and Ted Prusik.

You can learn more about VVM here or download The Book of VVM: Yesterday-today-and-tomorrow.

Leadership team with Dr. Kartoglu (L to R) Feldman, Caulfield, Kartoglu, Prusik,  Mataczynski, Smiley and Van den Hooff

The Book of VVM: Yesterday-today-and-tomorrow

In 1974, WHO established the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), which set out to make vaccines available to all the world’s children. It quickly became clear that healthcare workers needed a visual way to determine if a vaccine had been heat damaged. This was supported by the observations of others in the field, including Dr. Allegra who, while working in the Republic of Malawi, saw firsthand that vaccines were being kept at very hot temperatures. Dr. Allegra knew his former Harvard classmate and friend, Mr. Baughman, had been working on early diacetylene-based time-temperature integration – and wondered if that technology could be applied to vaccines. And so the journey began.

In his book, Dr. Kartoglu details the history of VVM from the original concept in the mid-1970s through today. This includes the newest developments, HEATmarker VVM+ which visually shows healthcare workers whether there has been either a cumulative heat exposure or a heat threshold excursion.

The invention of VVM ultimately transformed the vaccines cold chain – resulting in significant benefits in terms of cost control, logistics efficiency and increased safety in vaccine use. By the end of 2018, over eight billion VVMs had been sold – helping support the world’s health organizations and saving the lives of millions of children.