Researchers

CALERA is the technology behind CORE and developed by greenTEG AG. For researchers we created CALERA Research (Formerly known as CORE Research) which is a version of CORE that comes with functionalities and services tailored for scientific studies. The consumer version of CORE allows you to download the measured Core Temperature, Skin Temperature and Heart Rate from our cloud with a resolution of 5 minutes. But if you need more precise measurements, CALERA Research will be the better option.

CALERA Research will give you access to high-resolution (1Hz) raw data; Core Temperature / Skin Temperature / Heart Rate (Ext.) / Accelerometer and Heat-Flux*. This data is stored locally on the device to prevent any loss of data during your measurements. The devices are individually calibrated to ensure the highest possible accuracy, and we offer our expert support to help you setting up your studies and interpret the results.

Because CALERA Research saves all the raw data, we can run our future algorithms on previously collected data. As we keep on further improving our algorithms on a monthly basis, this can improve the quality of your measurement without the need to do extra studies. This is especially important for edge cases, where currently our algorithm has a lower accuracy than we strive for. E.g. firefighters, swimming, and hypothermia.

Research

  • Raw Data Access
    • Highest resolution (1x second)
    • Core Temperature, Skin Temperature, Acceleration in XYZ, Heart rate (Ext.), Heat-flux*
    • Run future algorithms on previously collected data
  • Remote Support
    • Assist in setting up your studies
    • Interpretation of data
  • Highest Accuracy
    • Individually calibrated devices
  • Store Data on CORE
    • 3,5 days of storage space
    • No loss in data due to bad connection
  • CALERAtool
    • Control device via PC
    • Download data from several devices simultaneously

*Heat-flux is only available under agreement

CALERA Research Product
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Applications

Core body temperature is an important vital sign. However, before CORE/CALERA Research, it was often impractical to measure the core temperature. Pulmonary artery catheters, urinary bladder, or oesophageal are almost only used in a hospital setting. Rectal thermometers are often not preferred by participants, and ingestible thermometer e-pills are expensive and need the right timing. All other methods do not allow for continuous and/or accurate monitoring.

A continuous core body temperature signal has countless applications, and we are already working together with our partners in the fields below. Please contact us if you have an application that is not yet in this list and you want to find out if CALERA Research is useful for you as well.

  • Thermo-physiology
  • Sports
  • Fever & Sepsis Detection
  • Covid-19
  • Drug & Vaccine Testing
  • Ovarian Cycle
  • Thermal Comfort
  • Circadian Cycle
    • Sleep Disorders
    • Stress
    • Obesity
    • Alzheimer
    • Parkinson

Note: CORE received the Emergency Use Authorization in the US, making it available for clinical use during the Covid-19 crisis. We are currently filing for full FDA approval.

Application examples

Circadian cycle

The simplest way to monitor the circadian cycle is to measure the core body temperature. The temperature can be measured easily with CALERA Research without having a significant impact on the subject's daily routines. Changes in the circadian cycle can help to draw conclusions about health issues like jetlag, narcolepsy, insomnia, sleep quality, burnout, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ovulation status, and many more.

Sports

During high physical activity, your core temperature can rise to dangerous levels. Professional athletes have embraced CORE enthusiastically for protection, heat adaption training and strategical decisions. Many Olympic athletes and UCI riders describe the device as a game changer. We also want to bring this technology to researchers to develop more insights in physiology. During high physical activity a heart rate monitor is connected to CORE to increase the accuracy.

Fever monitoring

Fever changes the thermoregulation of the body and requires sophisticated algorithms to detect the temperature accurately. The figure to the left shows that the algorithm fits the reference method very well. Indicated are also tympanic temperature measurements (orange diamonds) and intakes of 500 mg paracetamol (dashed lines).

Validation

The accuracy is dependent on the use-case and on the reference thermometer method used. CALERA uses ingested electronic pills as the primary reference which is a widely accepted solution for measuring accurate core body temperature.

The following charts shows the accuracy of different thermometer types by Casa et al. [1], as well as the CORE sensor data from the Verdel et al. [2] study and greenTEG`s internal study. All datapoints are recorded during sports using a rectal thermometer as the reference method with the exception of greenTEG`s internal validation which uses ingested electronic pills.

Casa et al defined an accuracy threshold for the bias of maximum 0.27° C. All studies with CORE showed that CORE/CALERA Research is well within this limit. greenTEG`s internal studies found a bias of 0.03 ° C. and Verdel et al. found a bias of -0.10 & 0.23 depending on the activity level.

 

 

The bias explains how precise a method is, meaning that the average of all measurements is close to the true measurement, but the spread of the error can still be large. A better indication of the accuracy is the 95 % Limit of Agreement. This value shows you that 95% of all measurement fall within this range from the bias. In the next chart we show different thermometer types with respect to Limits of Agreement, and also include the CORE sensor data from the Verdel et al. study and greenTEG`s internal study. Again, all points follow from measurements during sports and use a rectal thermometer as a reference, except our internal validation which uses gastrointestinal pills.

Casa et al. Does not present a cut-off value for the limits of agreement, but Mogensen et al. [3] found that the limit of agreement from one of the best aurial (in-ear) thermometer used in a medical environment is 0.8° C. All values below this line should be considered highly accurate. Based on the data available, both from us and Verdel et al., CORE should be considered the most accurate non-invasive method for core body temperature measurements. (greenTEG = 0.56° C, Verdel et al. 0.55 ° C & 0.61 ° C)

 

Feel free to contact us and discuss your study and the implications your use-case has on the accuracy.

Thermometer methods

As your core temperature is not uniformly distributed in your body, various thermometer methods react differently to external and internal thermal influences. It is therefore important to always keep the thermometer method in mind when reading about study results. As CALERA Research’s algorithm is mainly based on ingestible pill data it will also behave most similar to this method. Have a look in the papers below where the differences between these methods are discussed.

 

Esophageal vs. rectal probe vs. telemetric pill

Esophageal vs. rectal probe  

Rectal probe vs. telemetric pill

Rectal probe vs. Tympanic temperature

References

[1] Casa DJ, Becker SM, Ganio MS, Brown CM, Yeargin SW, Roti MW, Siegler J, Blowers JA, Glaviano NR, Huggins RA, Armstrong LE, Maresh CM. Validity of devices that assess body temperature during outdoor exercise in the heat. J Athl Train. 2007 Jul-Sep;42(3):333-42. PMID: 18059987; PMCID: PMC1978469.

[2] Verdel, N.; Podlogar, T.; Ciuha, U.; Holmberg, H.-C.; Debevec, T.; Supej, M. Reliability and Validity of the CORE Sensor to Assess Core Body Temperature during Cycling Exercise. Sensors 2021, 21, 5932. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21175932

[3] Mogensen CB, Vilhelmsen MB, Jepsen J, Boye LK, Persson MH, Skyum F. Ear measurement of temperature is only useful for screening for fever in an adult emergency department. BMC Emerg Med. 2018 Dec 3;18(1):51. doi: 10.1186/s12873-018-0202-5. PMID: 30509206; PMCID: PMC6276133.

[4] Gosselin, J.; Béliveau, J.; Hamel, M.; Casa, D.; Hosokawa, Y.; Morais, J.A.; Goulet, E.D.B. Wireless Measurement of Rectal Temperature during Exercise: Comparing an Ingestible Thermometric Telemetric Pill Used as a Suppository against a Conventional Rectal Probe. J. Therm. Biol. 2019, 83, 112–118.

For more information have a look at the CALERA Research webpage of our holding company greenTEG AG